Action Insight

ECB kept the main refinancing rate at 0.00% and deposit rate at -0.4% as widely expected. There is also no change to the asset purchase program. The central bank extended the program to December 2017, buying EUR 60b a month. ECB president Mario Draghi noted in the post meeting press conference that "there are no signs yet of a convincing upward trend in underlying inflation." He emphasized that "a very substantial degree of monetary accommodation is needed for euro area inflation pressures to build up and support headline inflation in the medium term". Meanwhile, growth would be "dampened" by "sluggish pace of structural reform" in the region. Euro lost much momentum against Dollar and Sterling and is trading mildly lower. Also from Europe, Eurozone current account surplus widened to EUR 36.1b in November. UK RICS house price balance dropped to 24 in December. Swiss PPI rose 0.2% mom, 0.0% yoy in December.

As expected, BOC left its overnight rate unchanged at 0.5% in January. Yet, it delivered a more dovish than expected message and sent CAD to a one-week low against USD. At the press conference, Governor Stephen Poloz revealed that 'Governing Council was particularly concerned about the ramifications of U.S. trade policy, because it is so fundamental to the Canadian economy'. He suggested that further rate cut cannot be ruled out of US' protectionist policy puts BOC's inflation target at risk.

Dollar recovered mildly overnight with treasury yield. The dollar index is now back at 101.25, comparing to this week's low at 100.26. 10 year yield closed at 2.389, comparing to this week's low at 2.313. 30 year yield closed 2.985 after touching 3.000, but recovered from this week's low at 2.913. Stocks were mixed as major indices were bounded in tight range with DJIA closed down -0.11% at 19804.72 and S&P 500 up 0.18% at 2271.89. Fed chair Janet Yellen said that it "makes sense" to gradually raise interest rate. And she warned that "waiting too long to begin moving toward the neutral rate could risk a nasty surprise down the road - either too much inflation, financial instability, or both." And more importantly, "in that scenario, we could be forced to raise interest rates rapidly, which in turn could push the economy into a new recession." Yellen also pledged to "closely follow" with economic policies and factor them into Fed's policies.

Dollar recovers mildly today but remains the weakest major currency for the week so far. Consumer inflation data from US looks promising. Headline CPI rose 0.3% mom, 2.1% yoy in December, accelerated from November's 1.7% yoy. Core CPI rose 0.2% mom, 2.2% yoy, accelerated from prior month's 2.1% yoy. Both met market expectations. Technically, the declines in Dollar and treasury yields seem to be losing some momentum. But volatility is anticipated on Donald Trump's inauguration data this Friday. Meanwhile, it should be noted that after all the rhetorics and speculations, fed fund futures are still pricing in 67.8% change of another rate hike by Fed by June. That hasn't changed much in recent weeks.

Dollar remains the weakest major currency over the week despite some positive comments from Fed officials. Fed Governor, Lael Brainard indicated that material increase in fiscal stimulus measures would lead to acceleration in rate hikes. Speaking for the Brookings Institution, Brainard suggested that "if fiscal policy changes lead to a more rapid elimination of slack, policy adjustment would, all else being equal, likely be more rapid than otherwise". She added that "based on recent spending indicators, we might expect progress to continue to be gradual and steady". Meanwhile, speaking for the National Retail Federation, New York Fed president William Dudley noted that the "risk that the Fed will snuff out the expansion anytime soon seems quite low because inflation is simply not a problem".

We expect EURCHF to weaken modestly from current level. Elevated political uncertainty in Europe should maintain demand for Swiss franc as a safe haven, a status which accelerating buying of the franc in several occasions in 2016, including Brexit referendum and US presidential election. While FX intervention is still on, we expected SNB to be a little more tolerable to franc's appreciation than the previous years. Switzerland's economic outlook has improved over the past months with gradual recovery seen in exports and inflation. Meanwhile, strength in US dollar should also allow the franc to weather some appreciation against the euro. In our estimate, EURCHF might drop to 1.05 by end-2014, -2.8% below SNB's unofficial floor of 1.08, after the central bank's removal of the 1.2 threshold in January 2015

Sterling rebounds today as UK prime minister Theresa May pledged to adopt a "phased approach" to achieve a "smooth and orderly Brexit". More important, the positive reaction was towards the confirmation that "the government will put the final deal that's agreed between the U.K. and the EU to a vote in both Houses of Parliament before it comes into force." May emphasized that UK will not stay as a member of the single market. But She would opt to "have a customs agreement with EU" and reach the country's "own tariff schedules at the WTO". GBP/USD's break of 1.2316 minor support argues that the pair has successfully defended 1.1946 key near term support and opens up the case for further rebound to 1.2774 resistance.

Sterling recovers mildly today but remains the weakest major currency for the week. Prime minister Theresa May's speech on Brexit is the main focus and could trigger more volatility in the pound. It's reported that May will reject the idea of "partial" EU member in return for a full control of UK's border. The trade relationship that May would like to push through is unknown. But EU leaders have already made it clear that UK cannot "cherry pick" access to the single markets. The pound could stay under pressure after May's speech. Technically, Sterling is staying bearish against Dollar, Euro and Yen in near term and we'd expect more downside ahead.

The British Pound drops across the board as the week starts. It's reported that prime minister Theresa May is schedule to deliver a speech on Tuesday to lay out the plan of Brexit. And, May is expected to outline a "hard Brexit" approach. And UK is prepared to withdraw from tariff-free trade relationship with EU, in return for the control of immigration. GBP/USD drops through 1.2036 support and breaches 1.2 handle as recent decline resumes. EUR/GBP also extended recent rebound from 0.8303 and reaches as high as 0.8844. GBP/JPY also drops sharply to as low as 136.94 so far. Sterling's selloff slowed a bit on news that Treasury is going to talk to major banks to smooth market reactions. But the pound remains vulnerable to further decline.

Recent correction does not change our relatively positive outlook over USDJPY this year. Donald Trump's victory at the US presidential election last November triggered sharp rally in interest rates and USD, facilitated by unwinding of USD shorts and opening of USD longs. Despite a pullback after soaring to a recent high 118.66 in mid-December, reflation trades, hinging on the bets that Trump's administration would drive quicker growth and inflation, remain in play and should push USDJPY higher after consolidation. Yield curve targeting announced in September indicates that BOJ would strive to keep the 10-year JGB yields close to its target by buying sufficient amounts of bonds. This, together with the sharp rise in US yields, helps accelerate divergence of Japanese yields from those in the US, pressuring Japanese yen. We do not feel surprised if prices corrects to 110-112 in 1Q17. Rather, it offers a buying opportunity for a resumption of recent rally. Risk to USDJPY's strength is slower-than-expected and/or milder-than-expected implementation of Trump's pro-growth policy.

Dollar ended the week broadly lower, except versus Sterling, after US president-elect Donald Trump disappointed the markets by not giving any details on his policies during the first post election press conference. Dollar index reached as low as 100.72 before recovering to close at 101.18. Meanwhile, the greenback also took out key near term support level against Euro, Yen and Canadian Dollar, which carries some bearish implications. However, treasury yields staged a strong rebound on Friday, which could provide some relieves to Dollar bullish. 10 year yield closed at 2.380, after dipping to as low as 2.309, comparing to prior week's close at 2.418. Stocks were also resilient with NASDAQ closing a fresh record of 5574.12. DJIA stayed in tight range of around 200 pts. below 20000 handle. There are still prospects for the greenback to strike back is Trump delivers in his inauguration on January 20.

The forex markets are generally steady today, staying in prior day's range. Dollar and Sterling remain the two weakest major currencies for the week while Yen is strong together with Aussie and Kiwi. Released from US, retail sales rose 0.6% in December, missing expectation of 0.7%. Ex-auto sales rose 0.2%, also missed expectation of 0.5%. Headline PPI rose 0.3% mom, 1.6% yoy in December, accelerated from November's 1.3% yoy and meets expectation. PPI core rose 0.2% mom, 1.6% yoy, unchanged from November's 1.6% yoy and above expectation of 1.6% yoy.

China's trade surplus narrowed to US$40.8B in December from USD44.6B a month ago. From a year ago, exports contracted -6.1% y/y, deteriorating from a -1.6% drop in November, while imports growth decelerated to +3.1%, from November's expansion of +13%. Both contraction in exports and expansion in imports came in worse than expectations. We are concerned that rising oil prices would continue to weigh on the country's balance of payment given China's huge crude oil imports. Released last week, the country's FX reserve was reported to have dropped -US$41B, to US$3.01 trillion, in December. Similar to the past 5 months, the decline was driven by government's selling of foreign currencies to moderate renminbi depreciation

Dollar recovers mildly towards the end of the week as supported by comments from Fed officials. Fed chair Janet Yellen said that the economy is "doing quite well" and there are no serious short term obstacles. She noted "unemployment has now reached a low level, the labor market is generally strong and wage growth is beginning to pick up." Inflation has moved up and is "pretty close" to 2% target. Chicago Fed president Charles Evans expected that president-elect Donald Trump's stimulus policies to "increase growth by a couple of tenths over the next two years." And policymakers "look forward to refining that when we actually see proposals that are moving forward and likely to be implemented." A improvements in the economic outlook materializes, US would need "less accommodation". He also said earlier in the month that three rate hikes this year is "not implausible".

Dollar's selloff continues today in spite of positive job data. In particular, EUR/USD broke 1.0652 resistance. USD/JPY took the lead yesterday and broke 114.76 support. USD/CAD also broke 1.3080 key near term support. The dollar index also breached 55 days and breached 101 handle. Deeper decline is now in favor in the greenback in general, possibly except versus Sterling. US initial jobless claims rose 10k to 247k in the week ended January 7. Continuing claims dropped 16k to 2.1m in the week ended December 31. Import price index rose 0.4% mom in December.

British pound was the most volatile G10 currency last year with the trade weighted index plunging -15% on annual basis, despite a -5% rebound from the October low. Sterling fell about -16% against both US dollar and the euro for the year. The huge volatility was mainly driven by political reasons: Brexit referendum, resignation of David Cameron, as succession of Theresa May, as Prime Minster, as well as May's announcement to trigger Article 30, followed High Court's ruling that MPs must be consulted before triggering Brexit. In 2017, political risks should continue to haunt UK's economic developments as Brexit negotiations are prone to begin. The market has recently priced in higher BOE rate expectations due to rising inflation outlook and solid dataflow. Yet, we do not believe any rate hike would be adopted. The central bank would stand on the sideline, maintaining the bank rate at 0.25%, throughout the year. We are bearish over sterling, forecasting it to depreciate against USD and be range-bounded around current levels against the euro, which has been pressured by elevated political risks

Dollar traded broadly lower while stocks struggled in tight range as markets are dissatisfied with the lack of clarity on economic policies at president-elect Donald Trump's first post election press conference. DJIA gained 98.75 pts, or 0.50%, to close at 19954.28, still lacks buying to push through 20000 handle. S&P 500 rose 6.42 pts, or 0.28%, to close at 2275.32, kept below recent high at 2282.10. Dollar index had a volatile day yesterday, jumping to as high as 102.95 but then reversed and dipped to as low as 101.28, now back at 101.50. Gold rode on Dollar weakness and extended recent rebound, set to take on 1200 handle today. WTI crude oil also rebounded and is trading above 52 for the moment. In the currency markets, Yen is clearly strengthening on falling yield but is overwhelmed by the strength in Aussie. Sterling and Dollar remain the two weakest major currency for the week.

Dollar strengthens mildly today ahead of US president-elect Donald Trump's first post election press conference. Nonetheless, the strength is mainly seen against European majors. The dip in EUR/USD sent the dollar index above 102.50 briefly but there is no follow through buying in the greenback yet. US stock index futures also point to a flat open. The press conference will be held at 11am eastern time today and no specific topic was announced. Nonetheless, markets will be eagerly looking for details of Trump's expansive fiscal plans; The so called "Trump Rally" in stocks, yield and dollar lost much steam since the start of the year and will need fresh stimulus for the next moves.

US equities closed mixed overnight as markets await president-elect Donald Trump's first post election press conference. DJIA continued to struggle in tight range below 20000 handle and closed down -31.85 pts, or -0.16%, at 19855.53. S&P 500 closed completely flat for the first time in 9 years, at 2268.9. On the other hand, NASDAQ closed at 4th straight record at 5551.82, up 20 pts, or 0.36%. 10 year yield was relatively unchanged, closed up 0.003 at 2.379. Dollar index is trying to recover and is back above 102, comparing to last week's low at 101.30, but lacks momentum. In other markets, gold is staying firm as recent rebound is still in progress and is pressing 1190 handle. WTI crude oil dropped sharply overnight to as low as 50.71 and is trying to defend 50 handle.

Dollar recovers mildly today but stays weak for the week, next to Sterling. Focus is turning to US president-elect Donald Trump's first post election press conference tomorrow. Markets are looking for clues on whether Trump is prepared to deliver his election promises and push expansive fiscal policy after his inauguration on January 20. While the greenback weakens this week, it's still holding on to key near term support levels. Thus, the pull back is still seen as a correction technically. Meanwhile, markets will also pay close attention to whether DJIA would power through 20000 handle, or bounce off from there. Meanwhile, Sterling remains on the weakest major currencies on Brexit worries.