U.S. equities recovered moderately after the sharp decline yesterday; investors were in buy the dip mode during a rare U.S. equities market pull back. Despite the amount of ink spilt over the health care vote, fundamentally the U.S. economic landscape looks bright, and investors were quick to snap up bargains.
However, news of the deplorable terrorist attack in London held the upward momentum in check. U.S. Congress will vote on the AHCA tonight, and with Republicans still approximated to be lacking the need votes, the Trump administration’s backroom negotiation skills will be put to the test whipping up the required tally to secure the 216 votes to pass. However, 12 hours is a decade in political time, and things can change in a heartbeat. In other markets, JPY has been the biggest beneficiary of the haven rally while Industrial commodities had another weak session led by declines in both copper and iron ore
Handy Tool from the New York Times to monitor the House vote on Obamacare Replacement
Australian Dollar
The Aussie dollar has opened firmer at .7675 this morning after plummeting to .7640 overnight as investors were more than willing to buy the long-awaited dip in U.S. stocks, supporting risk appetite. On the surface, it would appear that the Aussie dollar has been doing little more than been echoing broader risk appetite.But the Aussie was also the beneficiary of the weaker U.S. housing data as, despite two rate hikes since December, the market still views the Fed as dovish and the weaker than expected housing data supported this bias.
On the iron ore front, prices were dealt another blow when Chinese press reported 16 Beijing Banks had raised their mortgage rates.
Japanese Yen
USD/JPY teased with 111.00 level on Haven flow. With the weak U.S. housing data, along with a sagging dollar, it took little more than a feather duster sweep to take out support. This triggering stops on the way to 110.80 before the pair regained some composure and for risk appetite to re-emerge.
The USD/JPY has opened bid in APAC with convictions apparently tied to the emerging news out of the Whitehouse that the Team Trump is considering some concession to the AHCA that would appeal to the House Freedom Caucus.
Worth keeping an eye on the headlines as so far only USD/JPY desks have taken the bait, but the tail is for broader risk appeal.
New Zealand Dollar
RBNZ released its policy rate (the OCR) will remain at 1.75%, as was widely expected by the market. In typical knee-jerk fashion, and one can never be sure why the kiwi sold off 20 pips before pulling back.
After glossing over the accompanying statement, there is nothing to suggest a change in the Bank’s neutral bias. Inflation is still expected a return to the midpoint of the Bank’s target range over the medium term, but the release was far from a game changer and failed to surprise the market one way or the other.
The market continues to consolidate at the top of the recent ranges as dealer remains on edge ahead of Thursday healthcare vote. With little on the economic calendar, traders remain glued to the shifting tides of the health care negotiations and how that parlays into risk appetite.
China
U.S. healthcare headlines are hogging the headline overshadowing the biggest l storyline. The seven-day repo fixing rates in China have spiked higher but small lenders are reported to have missed payments in the interbank market early in the week, and shadow banks are having difficulty in receiving funding promoting the PBOC temporary liquidity injections
The increase in Repo rates can be explained away as the PBOC attempting to control financial asset bubbles and perhaps influence the yuan However if there are ongoing issues with shadow banks missing payments red flags will go up indicating something deeper rooted is amiss. I suspect this will present considerable regional headwinds if steamrolls.