Reserve
Bank of Australia Governor Lowe met privately with a group of bankers
last Thursday and was reported to have “considered aloud … the
possibility that Australia’s cash rate could go as far in this
rising cycle as the US Federal Reserve’s (now at 4.5-4.75 per
cent).” The article (gated) goes on with “three-year bond futures sold
off on Thursday afternoon”. More detail in the bullets above.
Lowe’s term expires on September 17 but there are calls for him to
resign sooner.
Yen
was a mover today, with USD/JPY trading to highs (as I post) just
above 132.00. The market is abuzz with speculation that any BOJ
policy change under the new Governor, Ueda, will be very slow and
cautious. Ueda will testify in parliament on February 24 and again on
February 27 (see bullets above).
The USD gained a little ground against other majors also, although mvoes were not large. EUR, AUD, NZD, GBP, CAD, CHF are all lower against the big dollar to varying degrees.
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There was no data of note from the timezone apart from Q4 GDP out of Singapore.
Sports news – the
Kansas City Chiefs beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-35 to win the Super Bowl.
Asian
equity markets:
-
Japan’s
Nikkei 225 -0.9% -
China’s
Shanghai Composite +0.5% -
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng -0.6% -
South
Korea’s KOSPI -0.7% -
Australia’s
S&P/ASX 200 -0.2%
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