FX Daily: Navigating Central Bank Winds in Year-End Markets

FX Daily: One last big central bank meeting

The dollar is recovering some ground after the pushback from Fed officials against rate cut bets. However, the dovish Dot Plot may work as an anchor for rates and keep the dollar soft into the end of December. In Japan, the BoJ announces its policy in the early hours of tomorrow, and that will direct market expectations about a January hike.

 

USD: Softer into year-end?

The last few days of market action, before volumes dry up for Christmas, should continue to revolve around the “tug of war” between Fed officials trying to temper rate cut speculation and investors who have instead seen a validation of dovish bets from last week’s Dot Plot projections. Data can tip the scale in these situations, so consumer confidence, personal spending, and PCE figures should move the market this week.

We don’t expect the last bits of US data in 2023 to paint a very different picture, though. Ultimately, the Dot Plot surprise should keep providing an anchor for rates into the new year and prevent a major dollar rebound in a period that is also seasonally unfavourable for the greenback. It will, however, be important to see how much louder the post-meeting pushback against rate cut bets by Fed officials will be. We’ll hear from Chicago Fed President Austan Goolsbee today and Raphael Bostic tomorrow, but with Christmas getting closer, there will obviously be fewer chances to collect FOMC members’ remarks.

Today, the US calendar is otherwise quiet, and the FX market will primarily focus on the Bank of Japan announcement overnight (more in the JPY section). We expect DXY to stabilise around 102/103 into year-end, but risks are skewed to the downside.