Forex Today – 24/01: Bank of Canada holds 5% rates

The Bank of Canada will hold a policy meeting today, at which it is expected to maintain its 5% Overnight Rate.

1. The Bank of Canada is holding a policy meeting today. It is widely expected that it will decide to keep its interest rate at 5%, but the statement will be closely scrutinized for policy.
2. Yesterday’s slightly hawkish comments from the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting about the certainty of its price projections being reached produced a little firmness in the Japanese Yen. Japan’s 10-year sovereign yield briefly rose by more than 0.10%. The Nikkei 225 Index has continued to fall from its recent 34-year high price.
3. In off-hours futures trading, the two major US stock indices, the NASDAQ 100 and the benchmark S&P 500, are rising to new all-time highs. Trend traders and investors will be looking to be involved here on the long side. Historic precedent suggests the S&P 500 Index will produce a return of about 13% over the year.
4. Despite reaching a long-term high almost 2 weeks, Bitcoin has continued to trade lower, and is now below the big round number at $40,000.
5. In the Forex market, the Japanese Yen has been the strongest major currency since the Tokyo open today. The Australian Dollar has been the weakest. The greatest volatility recently has been seen in the USD/JPY currency pair.
6. New Zealand CPI (inflation) data met expectations yesterday with a 0.5% month-on-month increase.
7. Cocoa futures reached a new multi-year high price yesterday, which will keep trend traders interested in this commodity on the long side. It has been exhibiting a powerful bullish trend for more than a year now.
8. There will be releases of US, German, UK, French Flash Manufacturing & Services PMI data later.