Trump offered no details on infrastructure spending plans or his corporate reform, the two key catalysts to the dollar rally and bond sell-off since November. Instead, he talked about Russia and conflicts of interest.
The Japanese yen rose another 0.6% this morning to 114.71 after gaining 0.2% overnight. That the yen has crossed 115 again is dangerous. Stephen Innes, senior trader at OANDA, comments:
To refer to the overnight moves as a rollercoaster would be an understatement. However, the break of the 115.00 level is a massive breach; if strong USD/JPY demand does not appear out of Tokyo this morning to confirm overnight dip demand, we may be in for another “position event” that could see a significant retrenching of long USD/JPY position.
The Nikkei 225 fell 1% today, led by losses in healthcare stocks. Healthcare companies on average fell 2.8% after Trump talked about instigating bidding wars among big pharmaceutical companies.
They’re getting away with murder...Pharma has a lot of lobbyists and a lot of power and there is very little bidding. We’re the largest buyer of drugs in the world and yet we don’t bid properly and we’re going to save billions of dollars.