Macro Events & News

FX News Today

The USD is trading stronger across the board after the U.S. Fed’s 25 basis point rate hike, Janet Yellen said the Fed’s rate hike is a sign that the economy is on the path of sustainable improvement.

Global stock markets are trading higher, the S&P 500 closed 1.5% , while in Asia Japan’s Nikkei 225 closed up with a gain of 1.6%, at the time of writing EU markets are all trading higher.

Commodity prices are mostly weaker after the U.S. Fed opened the door for future rate hikes. WTI Crude Oil is down around 1.15%, while Gold is trading nearly 1% lower on the day at the time of writing.

The Norwegian central bank left the key deposit rate steady at 0.75%, but said rate may be reduced in the first half of next year.

Draghi is keeping the door open for additional easing, the ECB is ready to use all tools if necessary, the editorial of the European central bank’s Economic Bulletin brought few surprises and was once again a close repeat of Draghi’s central message from the last press conference. It said the “governing council will closely monitor the evolution in the outlook for price stability and, if warranted is willing and able to act by using all the instruments available within its mandate in order to maintain an appropriate degree of monetary accommodation”.

The Chinese Yuan weakens for 10 day’s in a row, this has helped support local stocks , as the weaker currency will underpin exports. The People’s Bank of China is likely to continue its effort to stabilize the Yuan against a basket of currencies and will look for a gradual depreciation against the USD, after the Fed’s move. Exports remain weak and fell for a fifth months in November as global demand remains tepid. As China remains on course for ongoing monetary accommodation, while the Fed has started the tightening cycle, the differences in policy stances will underpin further Yuan weakness.

Main Macro Events Today

• EUR German Info Business Climate: The German Ifo business climate disappointed, with the headline reading unexpectedly falling to 108.7 against expectations for a steady reading of 109.0. The breakdown showed that the dip was due to a decline in the current conditions indicator, which fell to 112.8 from 113.4. The more forward looking expectations index remained steady at 104.7, after rising in the previous three months. The diffusion index, which gives the balance of positive and negative answers, fell back to 10.4 from 10.9 as confidence in the construction industry declined in tandem with whole sale and retail confidence. Still optimists continue to outnumber pessimists in all sectors and the stable expectations reading means the number is not as negative as the headline reading suggests, especially as numbers remain at high levels.

• GBP U.K. November retail sales: reported much stronger than expected, with sales up 1.7% m/m, against analyst median forecast for a rise of 0.6% m/m. The annual rate jumped to 5.0% y/y and October data were revised higher to 4.2% y/y from 3.8% y/y reported initially. More signs that the U.K. recovery remains on track, which will keep the implicit tightening bias at the BoE in place, although the bank clearly is in no rush to follow the Fed, as wage growth and inflation remains low.

• USD U.S. Current Account: Current account data for Q3 is out Today and should show a headline decrease to -$122 bln (median -$120 bln) from $109.7 bln in Q2 and -$118.3 bln in Q1. As a percentage of GDP this would represent a -2.7% figure which compares to -2.4% in Q3 and -2.7% in Q1. The Q3 trade deficit was -$9.6 bln from a $6.6 bln surplus in Q2.

• USD U.S. Philadelphia Fed Index: December Philly Fed is out today and should have the headline rising to 3.0 (median 1.5) from 1.9 in November. The already released December Empire State Index posted an increase to -4.6 from -10.7. More broadly, analyst expect producer sentiment to trend sideways in December with the ISM-adjusted average of all measures remaining steady at 50 for a fourth month since first reaching that figure in September.

• USD U.S. Initial Jobless Claims: Claims data for the week of December 12 are out Thursday and should reveal a decline to 280k (median 273k) from 282k in the week of December 5 and 269k in the week before that. Claims are continuing to strike firm levels and analyst expect December data to extend the 270k average set by the headline in November. Accompanying this, analyst expect to see a 200k non-farm payroll headline in December that just slightly undershoots the 211k headline from November.