The Bank of Japan has started a two-day policy meeting, which is expected to signal under what conditions the Bank will finally begin to abandon its ultra-loose monetary policy.
➡️ The Bank of Japan has started its latest policy meeting, the decision on which is expected tomorrow. The Bank has been the subject of much speculation about when it might finally abandon its extremely accommodative monetary policy and negative interest rates. The Bank has said previously that its key metric will be wage growth leading to inflationary pressure that will push the CPI higher to hit its target consistently before such a change can be made. Markets saw the signs and expected an imminent change, which was helping to revive the Japanese yen after a long period of weakness. However, it seems that such a political change is still a long way off.
➡️ The Reserve Bank of Australia will release the minutes of its latest policy meeting tomorrow.
➡️ Asian stock markets are weak, but major US indexes continue to advance after closing at 2-year weekly highs on Friday. The prices ofNASDAQ 100 index and the benchmark S&P 500 index are very close to the new maximum prices of the last 2 years.
➡️ Crude oil has risen sharply in recent days after trading at a new 6-month low, as attacks on shipping in the Red Sea by Houthi forces prompted major shipping companies to refuse to pass goods through the Sea Red. The United States signals that it may mount a military operation to fully reopen the Red Sea to maritime traffic.
➡️ In the Forex market, since the opening of Tokyo, the New Zealand dollar has been the strongest major currency, while the Japanese yen has been the weakest, putting the currency NZD/JPY on fire. There currently appear to be no good long-term trends to exploit in this asset class, although with the US dollar weakening again last week, all eyes will be on EUR/USD on the Long side if we get a daily close above the key resistance level at $ 1.1008..
➡️ Bitcoin continues to decline from its recent 18-month high above $ 44,000. It remains to be seen whether it will stabilize at the nearby $40,907 support level, where trend-following traders may still find new long entries.
➡️ Cocoa futures they closed lower last week, but remain within a valid and very strong long-term uptrend.
Credit by DailyForex.com