Yen Weakens as Ueda Keeps Options Open on Policy
The yen weakened amid bets Japan’s yield discount to the US will remain wide as the central bank governor refrained from hinting when he will hike interest rates.
USD/JPY gained 0.5% to 150.60 as Kazuo Ueda indicated he aims to keep his options open ahead of the bank’s next policy meeting
Ueda: May Need to Mull Rate Hike if Food Lifts Broader Inflation
Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1% after US President Donald Trump indicated that tariff exceptions would be tough to secure. Gauge is on track to advance five of the last six days
“I know there are some exceptions, and it’s an ongoing discussion, but not too many, not too many exceptions,” Trump said in an interview with Newsmax, referring to tariffs. “No, I don’t want to have too many exceptions”
Trump also said he may implement tariffs on copper imports within weeks
GBP/USD eased 0.1% to 1.2930 ahead of UK February inflation which is expected to hold steady and before the spring fiscal budget
“OCBC continued to flag the risk of stagflation-like conditions for UK and that may complicate BoE policy making,” Christopher Wong, a strategist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp, writes in note
On reciprocal tariffs, UK may have a lesser risk of being hit but not all is clear as Trump has also indicated that VAT is a tariff, and he promised reciprocal tariffs to VAT
Treasury yields rose across the curve with the 10-year tenor up 3bps to 4.34%
AUD/USD tumbled as much as 0.4% to hit 0.6278 after the CPI release, but later pared losses in part on exporter buying under 0.6290, according to an Asia-based FX trader; now up 0.2% to 0.6316
NZD/USD gains 0.3% to 0.5752
Source : Bloomberg
