mask Fed Delivered but Dollar Struggles

16/ 03/ 2017

Fed Delivered but Dollar Struggles

Daily Update - 16th Mar 2017

Yesterday’s Market

  • USD Retail Sales, Consumer Price Index, FEDs Interest Rate Decision
  • EUR Netherland Election

Yesterday’s Focus

The Fed raised interest rates but the US dollar fell. The decision to raise interest rates yesterday was not unanimous where Yellen spoke positive about the labor market and business sentiment. However she felt that not much had changed since December.  She did not offer anything more than to say that, 3 rate hikes qualifies as gradual and they expect policies to remain accommodative for some time. 

The disappointment was felt across the financial markets as 10 year Treasury yields dropped by 10 basis points while the dollar was sold-off as an immediate reaction to the announcement. Further support was given to EUR after the release of the Dutch elections' result, showing that the ruling party Mark Rutte has taken a big lead over Anti EU candidate Geert Wilder, bringing relief to those concerned over populism in Europe.

Today’s Market

  • AUD Unemployment Rate
  • JPY BOJ Interest Rate Decision
  • GBP BOE Interest Rate decision, Monetary Policy Committee Vote Cut, Vote Unchanged, Vote Hike

Today’s Focus

The day will start with data coming out from Australia, which is the unemployment rate which is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force. Later on, the BoJ and the BoE will be conducting Interest rate decision based on the positivity in economic reports that are relevant to inflation as well as job data for the specific economy.

The day will come to a conclusion with the Vote Cut, Vote Unchanged, Vote Hike which is the adjustment of the interest rate which is set by the MPC and they set it to what they think will enable the inflation target to be met. Investors will be keeping an eye on Bank of England's monetary policy announcement as this move the markets simply because of the focus on sterling and the upcoming trigger of Article 50.