Dollar rebounds in Asian session after FBI said that there was no new evidence found against Hillary Clinton regarding her handling of emails as secretary of state. This came just ahead of the US presidential election on November 8. The greenback has been under much selling pressure last week as FBI's investigation on Clinton narrowed her race with Donal Trump. Dollar index dived to as low as 96.89 comparing to October's higher at 99.11. S&P 500 also lost -41.2 pts or -1.93% for the week. The news should have eased some concerns over the uncertainty of the presidential election. However, some analysts pointed out that Trump's late come back might not be totally related to Clinton's email probe. Markets will likely remain cautious for the initial part of the week.
The minutes of September 20-21 BoJ meeting showed that "most members expressed the recognition that measures to strengthen the forward-looking expectation formation mechanism were warranted, as the adaptive component continued to play a relatively large role compared to other countries in terms of the formation of inflation expectations in Japan." And, it was appropriate for BoJ "to strengthen its commitment to achieving the price stability target." Meanwhile a few members noted that BoJ should adopt the "inflation-overshooting commitment." However, one member noted that "inflation-overshooting commitment was not a realistic target in light of the growth potential, and would not be effective for raising inflation expectations either."
On the data front, Japan labor cash earnings rose 0.2% yoy in September. German factory orders, Swiss foreign currency reserves and CPI, Eurozone retail PMI, Sentix investor confidence, retail sales will be featured in European session. US will release labor market conditions index. Looking ahead, RBNZ rate decision will be a focus in a relatively light calendar. But the main focus will be on US election. Here are some highlights:
- Tuesday: China trade balance; Swiss unemployment rate; German industrial production, trade balance; UK productions; Canada housing starts; US election
- Wednesday: Japan current account; China CPI; UK trade balance;
- Thursday: RBNZ rate decision; Australia home loans; Canada new housing price index; US jobless claims
- Friday: Japan PPI, tertiary industry index; German CPI final