IC Markets Asia Fundamental Forecast | 26 June 2024
What happened in the U.S. session?
The S&P/Case-Shiller 20-city Home Price Index (HPI) rose 7.2% YoY in April, coming higher than the estimate of 7% while easing slightly from the previous month’s gain of 7.5%. Cities such as San Diego continued to report the highest annual gain in the 20-city index with a 10.3% increase, followed by New York and Chicago, with increases of 9.4% and 8.7%, respectively. For the second consecutive month, the National Index has jumped at least 1% over its previous all-time high, reflecting the strength in home prices despite elevated mortgage rates.
Meanwhile, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index edged slightly lower in June from 101.3 to 100.4 as persistent concerns on future expectations continue to weigh on the American consumer. Respondents expressed mixed views in the latest survey with the present situation improving slightly while future expectations for income and business conditions weakened. In addition, May’s reading was also revised lower from 102 down to 101.3.
Stronger home prices lifted the dollar while consumer confidence limited the initial gains. The dollar index (DXY) climbed strongly as it rose from 105.50 to touch an overnight high of 105.78 before pulling back towards 105.60 by the end of the U.S. session.
What does it mean for the Asia Session?
The monthly CPI indicator for Australia was quite stable in the first couple of months in 2024 but it began creeping up from 3.4% YoY in February to 3.6% YoY in April. The estimate of 3.8% for the month of May points to a third consecutive month of higher prices, raising concerns that there could be a potential return of sustained inflationary pressures in the land down under. Should the latest print surprise market forecasts to the upside, the Aussie will likely surge this morning.
The Dollar Index (DXY)
Key news events today
New Home Sales (2:00 pm GMT)
What can we expect from DXY today?
New home sales have been mixed over the past 12 months with sales swinging between growth and decline as high home prices and elevated mortgage rates pushed many potential home buyers onto the sidelines. The estimate of 636K home sales for the month of May points to a relatively unchanged figure from the previous month. Should sales disappoint market expectations, we could witness the dollar facing additional overhead pressures during the U.S. session.
Central Bank Notes:
- The Federal Funds Rate target range remained unchanged at 5.25% to 5.50% for the seventh meeting in a row.
- The Committee seeks to achieve maximum employment and inflation at the rate of 2% over the longer run and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals have moved toward better balance over the past year.
- The economic outlook is uncertain, and the Committee remains highly attentive to inflation risks. Inflation has eased over the past year but remains elevated and in recent months, there has been modest further progress toward the Committee’s 2% inflation objective.
- Recent indicators suggest that economic activity has continued to expand at a solid pace while job gains have remained strong, and the unemployment rate has remained low.
- In considering any adjustments to the target range for the federal funds rate, the Committee will carefully assess incoming data, the evolving outlook, and the balance of risks and does not expect it will be appropriate to reduce the target range until it has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%.
- In assessing the appropriate stance of monetary policy, the Committee will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and would be prepared to adjust the stance of monetary policy as appropriate if risks emerge that could impede the attainment of the Committee’s goals.
- In addition, the Committee will continue reducing its holdings of Treasury securities and agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities. Beginning in June, the Committee will slow the pace of decline of its securities holdings by reducing the monthly redemption cap on Treasury securities from $60 billion to $25 billion.
- The Committee will maintain the monthly redemption cap on agency debt and agency mortgage-backed securities at $35 billion and will reinvest any principal payments in excess of this cap into Treasury securities.
- Next meeting runs from 30 to 31 July 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
Gold (XAU)
Key news events today
New Home Sales (2:00 pm GMT)
What can we expect from Gold today?
New home sales have been mixed over the past 12 months with sales swinging between growth and decline as high home prices and elevated mortgage rates pushed many potential home buyers onto the sidelines. The estimate of 636K home sales for the month of May points to a relatively unchanged figure from the previous month. Should sales disappoint market expectations, we could witness the dollar facing additional overhead pressures and potentially provide a lift for gold prices during the U.S. session.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Australian Dollar (AUD)
Key news events today
CPI (1:30 am GMT)
What can we expect from AUD today?
The monthly CPI indicator for Australia was quite stable in the first couple of months in 2024 but it began creeping up from 3.4% YoY in February to 3.6% YoY in April. The estimate of 3.8% for the month of May points to a third consecutive month of higher prices, raising concerns that there could be a potential return of sustained inflationary pressures in the land down under. Should the latest print surprise market forecasts to the upside, the Aussie will likely surge this morning.
Central Bank Notes:
- The RBA kept the cash rate target unchanged at 4.35%, marking the ninth pause out of the last ten board meetings.
- Over the year to April, the monthly CPI indicator rose by 3.6% in headline terms, and by 4.1% excluding volatile items and holiday travel, which was similar to its pace in December 2023.
- The central forecasts published in May were for inflation to return to the target range of 2–3% in the second half of 2025 and to the midpoint in 2026 while there have been indications that momentum in economic activity is weak, including slow growth in GDP, a rise in the unemployment rate and slower-than-expected wages growth.
- Inflation is easing but has been doing so more slowly than previously expected and it remains high and the Board expects that it will be some time yet before inflation is sustainably in the target range.
- The path of interest rates that will best ensure that inflation returns to target in a reasonable timeframe remains uncertain and the Board is not ruling anything in or out.
- Next meeting is on 6 August 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Kiwi Dollar (NZD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from NZD today?
The Kiwi hit an overnight high of 0.6122 before pulling back slightly. This currency pair started to rise once more and was trading around 0.6120 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.6100
Resistance: 0.6150
Central Bank Notes:
- The Monetary Policy Committee kept the OCR unchanged at 5.50% for the seventh meeting in a row and agreed that interest rates need to remain at a restrictive level for a sustained period to ensure annual headline CPI inflation returns to the 1 to 3% target range.
- Restrictive monetary policy is contributing to an easing in capacity pressures while headline inflation, core inflation, and most measures of inflation expectations are continuing to decline. However, domestic inflation has fallen more slowly than expected and headline CPI inflation remains above the Committee’s target band.
- Higher dwelling rents, insurance costs, council rates, and other domestic services price inflation have resulted in a slow decline in domestic inflation, posing a risk to inflation expectations.
- GDP declined by 0.1% in the December 2023 quarter with economic growth having now been negative for four of the past five quarters. High interest rates have reduced household spending, as well as residential and business investment, despite very strong population growth. Recent indicators of economic activity have been weak, as expected.
- Next meeting is on 10 July 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Japanese Yen (JPY)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from JPY today?
Yen weakness remains persistent to prop up USD/JPY as it hit an overnight high of 159.75. This currency pair was trading around 159.70 as Asian markets came online – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 158.40
Resistance: 160.20
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank considers that the policy framework of Quantitative and Qualitative Monetary Easing (QQE) with Yield Curve Control and the negative interest rate policy to date have fulfilled their roles. With the price stability target of 2%, it will conduct monetary policy as appropriate, guiding the short-term interest rate as a primary policy tool.
- The Bank of Japan decided on the following measures:
- The Bank will encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to remain at around 0 to 0.1% while continuing its Japanese government bonds (JGB) purchases in accordance with the decisions made at the March 2024 MPM.
- The Bank decided, by an 8-1 majority vote, that it would reduce its purchase amount of JGBs thereafter to ensure that long-term interest rates would be formed more freely in financial markets.
- Underlying CPI inflation is expected to increase gradually, since it is projected that the output gap will improve and that medium- to long-term inflation expectations will rise with a virtuous cycle between wages and prices continuing to intensify.
- In the second half of the projection period of the April 2024 Outlook for Economic Activity and Prices (Outlook Report), it is likely to be at a level that is generally consistent with the price stability target of 2%.
- The year-on-year rate of increase in the CPI (all items less fresh food), has been in the range of 2.0-2.5% recently, as services prices have continued to rise moderately, reflecting factors such as wage increases, although the effects of a pass-through to consumer prices of cost increases led by the past rise in import prices have waned. Inflation expectations have risen moderately.
- Japan’s economy has recovered moderately, although some weakness has been seen in part while is likely to keep growing at a pace above its potential growth rate, with overseas economies continuing to grow moderately and as a virtuous cycle from income to spending gradually intensifies against the background of factors such as accommodative financial conditions.
- Next meeting is on 31 July 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Euro (EUR)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from EUR today?
Stronger demand for the dollar caused the Euro to drop as low as 1.0690 overnight before retracing higher. This currency pair was trading around 1.0715 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.0680
Resistance: 1.0750
Central Bank Notes:
- The Governing Council today decided to lower the three key ECB interest rates by 25 basis points after nine months of holding rates steady.
- Accordingly, the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the deposit facility will be decreased to 4.25%, 4.50% and 3.75% respectively, with effect from 12 June 2024.
- Since September 2023, inflation has fallen by more than 2.5% and the inflation outlook has improved markedly while underlying inflation has also eased, reinforcing the signs that price pressures have weakened, and inflation expectations have declined at all horizons.
- At the same time, despite the progress over recent quarters, domestic price pressures remain strong as wage growth is elevated, and inflation is likely to stay above target well into next year – the latest Eurosystem staff projections for both headline and core inflation have been revised up for 2024 and 2025 compared with the March projections.
- Projections now show headline inflation averaging 2.5% in 2024, 2.2% in 2025 and 1.9% in 2026 while economic growth is expected to pick up to 0.9% in 2024, 1.4% in 2025 and 1.6% in 2026.
- The Council also confirmed that it will reduce the Eurosystem’s holdings of securities under the pandemic emergency purchase programme (PEPP) by €7.5 billion per month on average over the second half of the year.
- The Council is determined to ensure that inflation returns to its 2% medium-term target in a timely manner and will keep policy rates sufficiently restrictive for as long as necessary to achieve this aim and is not pre-committing to a particular rate path.
- Next meeting is on 18 July 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Swiss Franc (CHF)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from CHF today?
A combination of a stronger dollar and a second successive rate cut by the SNB has lifted USD/CHF as it hit 0.8952 overnight. This currency pair was edging higher towards 0.8960 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 0.8835
Resistance: 0.9000
Central Bank Notes:
- The SNB eased monetary policy by lowering its key policy rate by 25 basis points for the second consecutive meeting, going from 1.50% to 1.25% in June.
- The underlying inflationary pressure has decreased again compared to the previous quarter but inflation had risen slightly since the last monetary policy assessment, and stood at 1.4% in May.
- The inflation forecast puts average annual inflation at 1.3% for 2024, 1.1% for 2025 and 1.0% for 2026, based on the assumption that the SNB policy rate is 1.25% over the entire forecast horizon.
- Swiss GDP growth was moderate in the first quarter of 2024 with the services sector continuing to expand, while manufacturing stagnated.
- Growth is likely to remain moderate in Switzerland in the coming quarters as the SNB anticipates GDP growth of around 1% this year while currently expecting growth of around 1.5% for 2025.
- Next meeting is on 26 September 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
The Pound (GBP)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from GBP today?
Stronger demand for the dollar caused the Cable to pull back towards 1.2670 overnight before retracing higher. This currency pair was trading around 1.2690 as Asian markets came online – here are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.2630
Resistance: 1.2745
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted by a majority of 7-to-2 to maintain its Official Bank Rate at 5.25% for the seventh consecutive meeting.
- Two members preferred to reduce the Bank Rate by 25 basis points to 5%, an increase of one from the previous meeting.
- Twelve-month CPI inflation fell to 2.0% in May from 3.2% in March, close to the May Monetary Policy Report projection. CPI inflation is expected to rise slightly in the second half of this year, as declines in energy prices last year fall out of the annual comparison.
- Reflecting a margin of slack in the economy, CPI inflation had been projected to be 1.9% in two years’ time and 1.6% in three years.
- UK GDP appears to have grown more strongly than expected during the first half of this year. Business surveys, however, remain consistent with a slower pace of underlying growth, of around 0.25% per quarter.
- UK real GDP had increased by 0.6% in 2024 Q1, 0.2% stronger than had been expected in the May Monetary Policy Report and Bank staff now expect GDP growth of 0.5% in 2024 Q2 as a whole, stronger than the 0.2% rate that had been incorporated in the May Report.
- The MPC remains prepared to adjust monetary policy as warranted by economic data to return inflation to the 2% target sustainably. It will therefore continue to monitor closely indications of persistent inflationary pressures and resilience in the economy as a whole, including a range of measures of the underlying tightness of labour market conditions, wage growth and services price inflation.
- Next meeting is on 1 August 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bearish
The Canadian Dollar (CAD)
Key news events today
No major news events.
What can we expect from CAD today?
Inflation in Canada was mixed as median- and trimmed-CPI accelerated while common-CPI eased in May, injecting high volatility for the Loonie. USD/CAD initially tumbled from 1.3675 down to as low as 1.3617 before reversing sharply to climb back above 1.3650. This currency pair was drifting lower towards 1.3650 at the beginning of the Asia session – these are the support and resistance levels for today.
Support: 1.3610
Resistance: 1.3680
Central Bank Notes:
- The Bank of Canada reduced its target for the overnight rate by 25 basis points to 4.75% while continuing its policy of balance sheet normalization.
- Canada’s economic growth resumed in the first quarter of 2024 after stalling in the second half of last year. At 1.7%, first-quarter GDP growth was slower than forecast in the MPR but consumption growth was solid at about 3%, and business investment and housing activity also increased.
- Inflation remains above the 2% target and shelter price inflation is high but total CPI inflation has declined consistently over the course of this year, and indicators of underlying inflation increasingly point to a sustained easing.
- CPI inflation has eased from 3.4% in December to 2.7% in April while the preferred measures of core inflation have come down from about 3.5% last December to about 2.75% in April and the 3-month rate of core inflation slowed from about 3.5% in December to under 2% in March and April.
- In the labour market, businesses are continuing to hire workers as employment has been growing, but at a slower pace than the working-age population while elevated wage pressures look to be moderating gradually.
- The Governing Council is closely watching the evolution of core inflation and remains particularly focused on the balance between demand and supply in the economy, inflation expectations, wage growth, and corporate pricing behaviour.
- Recent data has increased the council’s confidence that inflation will continue to move towards the 2% target. Nonetheless, risks to the inflation outlook remain.
- Next meeting is on 24 July 2024.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Medium Bullish
Oil
Key news events today
EIA Crude Oil Inventories (2:30 pm GMT)
What can we expect from Oil today?
The API stockpiles missed market expectations of a decline of 3M barrels of crude as 0.9M barrels were added to storage instead. Weak consumer confidence in the U.S. also added to crude oil’s woes as WTI oil fell under $82 per barrel to hit $81.11 by the end of the U.S. session. Should the EIA inventories also register an unexpected build, the overhead pressures on crude could intensify further later today.
Next 24 Hours Bias
Weak Bullish
