- The Reserve Bank of Australia released its meeting minutes which contained no real surprises. The minutes showed that the Bank considered a rate hike but decided to leave rates unchanged as progress was seen on inflation. The Australian Dollar barely reacted to the release.
- In the Forex market, the Swiss Franc has been the strongest major currency since the Tokyo open today. The Japanese Yen has been the weakest, as it falls further despite warnings from the Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki that he is watching closely. The highest volatility recently has been seen in the USD/JPY currency pair, and in Yen crosses, although this is starting to decline.
- Bitcoin is continuing to consolidate not far from the 20-month high set recently at $52,884. Trend traders and investors will be interested in Bitcoin on the long side.
- Global stock markets are mixed. Trend traders will still look to be involved on the long side of major US equity indices, despite last week’s losses, and day traders may consider trading these indices long if they show bullish momentum after the market opens.
- Cocoa futures regained some ground yesterday after Friday’s sharp fall, which lead to profit taking and the suggestion that the current leg of the long-term bullish trend may have ended. Trend traders will be watching closely and considering going long, especially if the price makes a full recovery and breaks to a new long-term high.
- There will be releases of Canadian CPI (inflation) and Australian Wage Price Index data later. Canadian inflation is expected to have risen by 0.4% over the past month.
Forex Today: RBA Minutes Show Rate Hike Was Considered
Adam Lemon
The release of the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Reserve Bank if Australia shows a rate hike was considered before the decision to leave rates unchanged was taken.