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No Change at BOJ!
By Mike Conlon | December 18, 2009
The Japanese Central voted to keep their interest rate at .1%, attempting to encourage economic recovery. Japan has been battling deflation for MANY years, but it has picked up recently as the most recent CPI (consumer price index) declined 2.2% in October, marking the eighth straight month of declines.
The also issued a statement that they do not “tolerate” deflation, but issued no plans as to what they actually intend to do about it. Mostly hollow words if you ask me.
So this morning we’re seeing some Yen (JPY) weakness, as its down across the board, most notable against the Canadian dollar (CAD) at -1.07%. CAD is strong due to a rebound in oil prices which is trading above 74.
Also, I’m seeing a bit of British pound (GBP) strength this AM as UK mortgage approvals rose. This means the banks are starting to lend more and hopefully that will help stabilize their housing market.
Euro is a mixed bag this AM, trading flat against USD so far. News out of Greece is that they are going to reform their notoriously lax tax policy to try to raise revenue to get their debt under control. In Germany, Business confidence reached its highest levels since July 2008.
The Swiss franc (CHF) has advanced past 1.50 Euro, as the Swiss National Bank (SNB) allowed the currency to appreciate. Back in March, the bank intervened in its currency to keep it from appreciating and undermining economic recovery.
Lastly, today is “quadruple witching“– where both futures and options positions expire. So this could lead to some volatility today… though I suspect it won’t be bad as traders have been paring back positions for the holidays and year end.
Tags: bank, cad, CHF, currenc, currency, dollar, dow, economic, EUR, Euro, franc, gbp, Il, index, interest, interest rate, invest, Japan, jpy, market, Mike Conlon, news, oil, pound, Swiss, trade, trader, trading, USD, Yen
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