Major
forex rates traded in limited ranges during the session here with
traders awaiting the Federal Reserve statement and Powell’s
following news conference. ICYMI, previews posted already:
News
flow of any relevance was basically absent.
We
did get some data flow though. The New Zealand labour market report
for Q4 2022 (official NZ jobs data is published once a quarter)
showed a slight slackening in labour market tightness. ANZ
reaffirmed its call for a 50bp rate hike from the Reserve Bank of New
Zealand at the February 22 policy meeting. BNZ lowered its forecast
to 50bp from its previously expected 75bp hike.
From
the RBA’s Marion Kohler, head of the Bank’s Economic Analysis
Department, we had confirmation that the Bank expects inflation has
peaked with the Q4 CPI data. ICYMI that data last week:
And,
the RBA features the data on the front page of its website:
Note
that the RBA next meet on February 7. A 25bp rate hike is widely
expected given that huge gap between the cash rate and the CPI. Its
unlikely to be the last cash rate hike.
From
China we had the privately surveyed manufacturing PMI for January. This
follows yesterday’s official PMIs:
The
Caixin January Manufacturing PMI didn’t make it into expansion but
did nudge a little higher from December.
South
Korea’s trade deficit hit a record in January. Exports
fell for a fourth straight month. Weak
global demand for semiconductors and petrochemicals were cited.
Asian
equity markets:
-
Japan’s
Nikkei 225 +0.17% -
China’s
Shanghai Composite +0.1% -
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng +0.37% -
South
Korea’s KOSPI +0.82% -
Australia’s
S&P/ASX 200 +0.43%