Daily Forex Brief London: Tuesday 1st May 2012

RBA boldness should be applauded

Last night's decision by the RBA to lower the cash rate by 50bp to 3.75% ought to be applauded. Faced with an economy which, outside the mining sector, is in recession and with inflation likely to be lower than expected, policy-makers rightly decided that financial conditions needed to be loosened considerably. Australia's central bank would also be concerned by the continued decline in property prices – according to the ABS, established house prices fell by a further 1.1% in the first quarter, the fifth consecutive quarterly decline. More rate cuts are likely to be in the pipeline, judging by the level of term interest rates and the shape of the yield curve. For shorter-term maturities, yields fell by as much as 20bp overnight with the 2yr yield now just 2.8%! Both 5yr and 10yr bond yields fell to record lows. The RBA will also be pleased by the response of the currency, with the Aussie down 1% to just above 1.03. Last night's sudden drop aside, it is worth recognising that the AUD's recent performance has actually been remarkably resilient considering the significant narrowing in interest rate differentials. As we were suggesting yesterday, the key driver for the currency is invariably global risk appetite rather than domestic fundamentals.

Daily Forex Brief London: Monday 30th April 2012

The dollar's gentle descent

It has been exceedingly gradual, but the dollar has been drifting downwards over the past two weeks. Not that we are talking about a big move mind you – the dollar index is down by roughly 1.5% over that time. That said, some of the major dollar crosses are at levels not witnessed for some time – cable for instance reached a 7mth high at just under 1.63 overnight. Indeed, the pound has been something of a revelation so far this year, despite the fact that the economy is apparently back in recession. Clearly sterling is attracting flows from a number of different sources. Just imagine how well the currency might be doing if the economy was actually registering the kind of growth that America is experiencing. The Japanese yen is also faring quite well, after a torrid period in February and the first half of March. Even the beleaguered Aussie has perked up, despite mounting speculation that the RBA will cut rates by 50bp by mid-year. All things considered, it has been an indifferent first four months of the year for the dollar, which is slightly surprising as the economy looks better than most, corporate earnings are healthy and the Fed has backed away from implementing further QE after Operation Twist finishes next month. Part of the explanation is that there has been a slight improvement in risk appetite recently. For now, some of the high-beta currencies such as the Kiwi and the ZAR are attracting interest, while sterling retains a very healthy bid.

Daily Forex Brief London: Friday 27th April 2012

Japan goes further

It seems like some time ago now that Japan threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at the deflation problem. Now they are ripping out the plumbing and anything else they can find to try and escape the deflationary slump which the economy has been suffering from for the best part of the past fourteen years. The latest meeting has seen the Bank of Japan expand its asset purchase-program by a further JPY 10trln (to JPY 40trln). It also chose to extend the maturity of both government and corporate bonds to be purchased under their QE program. It now has an inflation target of 1%, which it remains confident of reaching "in the medium to long term", but that is a long time in central banking terms and markets hold little faith in such a forecast, largely through the bitter experience of recent years (and not only in Japan).

Daily Forex Brief London: Wednesday 25th April 2012

China's grim warning

In what can only be described as a remarkably candid assessment, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology overnight claimed that both domestic and external conditions were still 'grim' and that the economy was likely to endure further downward pressure. Companies in China are confronting growing operational difficulties, including much higher prices for energy and substantially higher wages. Interestingly, there has been little response in Asia overnight to this report, with equities becalmed ahead of tonight's FOMC decision and Friday's BoJ meeting. In foreign exchange markets, even the Aussie ignored the warning, which is unusual because it is invariably extremely sensitive to changes in China's economic outlook. Instead, it appears that more attention was paid to Premier Wen Jiabao's promise to stimulate the economy through additional policy measures if required. More stimulus from Beijing cannot be far away because it is clear that the economy needs it to achieve the growth targets set by policy-makers.

Daily Forex Brief London: Tuesday 24th April 2012

Seeing red

Yesterday proved to be a fairly tumultuous day in markets, in stocks especially. For Europe, it was a combination of the economic and political that conspired to put pressure on investor sentiment. Events in both France (a likely change in president) and the Netherlands (a backlash against austerity) impacted sentiment, as did the softer PMI data for both France and Germany. For now, it appears that the factors that were supportive for most of Q1 (ECB 3Y money, Greece inching back from the brink and better US data) are waning, but suitable replacements have yet to be found. For FX, this is seeing a stronger return to 'risk-off' moves into month-end, so the dollar is firmer against most (the yen excepted) and the Aussie is suffering the most, helped by softer inflation data overnight.