Summary:
- NZD Sell-off.
- July FOMC minutes gave no hawkish surprises.
- Euro under pressure.
FOMC meeting minutes for July
The market is reflecting bearish signals for this currency pair. The much awaited release of the minutes from the July FOMC meeting turned out to be somewhat disappointing, at least for the US Dollar (via the DXY Index). The minutes contained no hawkish surprises, with one sentence standing out in particular: “Participants judged that, as the stance of monetary policy tightened further, it likely would become appropriate at some point to slow the pace of policy rate increases while assessing the effects of cumulative policy adjustments on economic activity and inflation.”
Recent data indications, like the US economy's growth trajectory and the July US inflation report's reading of 0% m/m, indicating that recent Federal Reserve policy tweaks are certainly having the desired impact on aggregate demand and inflation. Rate expectations for the September Fed meeting were slightly lowered as a result of the July FOMC minutes. The likelihood of a rate increase of 75 basis points decreased from 51% yesterday to 46% today, indicating that market players are seeing the Fed's most recent statement as a confirmation of what was already known: the rate of rate increases is expected to decelerate over the upcoming months.
EUR/USD Price Chart
EUR/GBP currency pair
The market is reflecting mixed signals for this currency pair. The European Central Bank has succeeded so far in preventing further significant downside in the EUR-crosses by maintaining its difficult balancing act of raising interest rates to combat multi-decade highs in price pressures while preventing fragmentation of sovereign bond markets (preventing peripheral debt yields from widening out relative to their core counterparts).
But because energy inventories in the Eurozone are still low before the winter months, fears about growth are growing. The likelihood that the ECB will only be able to raise rates a few more times before the emphasis shifts to preventing a serious economic downturn is growing. Although the Euro's flaws have been contained, they nevertheless exist and pose a threat to the single currency.
EUR/GBP Price Chart
NZD sell-off in the wake of RBNZ policy update
The market's reaction to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand's (RBNZ) August policy update and guidance led to a sell-off of the New Zealand Dollar. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) signaled it will raise interest rates to levels higher than they had previously been expecting. On paper, the RBNZ did everything it could to back NZD bulls: it said that the economy was in good shape, that inflationary pressures were widespread, and that it would continue to raise interest rates. As the RBNZ suggested they will need to raise rates higher than they had previously thought, short-term New Zealand bond yields increased. Two additional rises of 50 basis points are now likely to occur throughout the course of 2022, and a smaller hike may occur in early 2023. The Pound to New Zealand Dollar fell by two thirds of a percent in the 15 minutes following the decision.
GBP/NZD Price Chart
Sources: finance.yahoo.com, dailyfx.com, poundsterlinglive.com
