- Market recovery failed to spark upside moves for riskier currencies, and its all about the Greenback for now.
- Thursday sees BoE rate call, and little else for the Asia and US sessions.
Broader markets experienced a recovery in sentiment after getting knocked back a couple of pegs by the ramp-up in the US’ trade war rhetoric against China. President Trump is positively itching for an all-out dust-up against China, and China seems prepared to deliver, cautioning that more tariffs from the US will be met with retaliation, though the Chinese are definitely playing their cards closer to their chest than the Trump administration, opting to avoid making more announcements than necessary.
Risk pairs go flat for Wednesday
The Euro and the Sterling both moved sideways for Wednesday, with the EUR/USD and the GBP/USD closing the day close to where they started, with the Euro barely shedding 20 whole pips between its opening and closing prices for the day. Resolutions on Brexit continue to remain thin to the point of non-existence, though Prime Minister Theresa May did win yet another key vote over the Brexit “meaningful vote” in the parliament, while the European Central Bank’s (ECB) Mario Draghi hit many of the same, well-worn notes in his speech on Wednesday. Thursday brings the Bank of England’s next rate call, though markets have already priced in a lack of movement from the BoE on the matter of interest rates, and now its a matter of identifying any changes to the vernacular the central bank uses in its Monetary Policy Summary, due at 11:00 GMT.
Central banker gathering delivers plenty of rhetoric, little action
On the USD side, the Fed’s Jerome Powell cautioned that changes to trade policy will cause the Fed to have to readjust their outlook for the US economy, a sentiment that was echoed by all of the other central bankers that were in attendance of the ECB’s panel, which was titled ‘Price and wage setting in advanced economies’. Very little new information came out of the panel, and the three-way speech event of the Fed’s Powell, the ECB’s Draghi, and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Lowe brought little to the table for traders to chew on.
The Aussie also went flat for Wednesday, finishing almost exactly where it started despite some lift early on in the Asia session, while the Kiwi managed to slip further, tucking closer into the year’s low near 0.6850, only pumping the brakes after New Zealand’s GDP figures for the first quarter came in exactly as expected. The rest of the week is quite clear for both the AUD and the NZD, though whether this is a good thing is up to the markets. The Yen gave up a little ground against the Greenback as Treasury yields moved higher, buoying the USD and keeping markets subdued.
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