Markets Steady with All Eyes on the FOMC Later in the Week

Well, it was a long weekend here in Australia thanks to the Queen’s birthday and it seems like the rest of the market jumped on that band wagon with relatively quiet ranges seen across the currencies in yesterday’s trading. The main exceptions were the Cable which not surprisingly came under further pressure as the fall out from Thursday’s election continues to resonate, and the Loonie, with the Cad catching a move after the BOC mentioned rate hikes for the first time in a long time.

Looking ahead to today’s trading and it’s a relatively quiet day in Asia in terms of fundamental data, although we do have Business Confidence our of Australia today which will hopefully be a catalyst for the Aussie which has been virtually flat lining for days now. Later in the day we have the CPI and RPI data due out of the UK, but any reaction will be short term as sterling moves will continue to be dominated by the election repercussions. We also have the German ZEW data due to add some interest to the Euro.

Into the US session and we have the PPI data out of the states but apart from that it’s pretty quiet and as we mentioned earlier the FOMC on Wednesday will continue to dominate market thoughts. A 0.25% hike is well priced in now, so the market’s focus will be on the statement and press conference, with the market leaning on the dovish side of things at the moment.

Rakuten Securities Australia Review