Japanese weakened further as G-20 finance leaders refrained from censoring the BOJ’s policies to depreciate its currency. The official statement released after the G-20, not much different from the G-7 one, said that “monetary policy should be directed toward domestic price stability and continuing to support economic recovery according to the respective mandates”. Policymakers are committed to “monitor and minimize the negative spillovers on other countries of policies implemented for domestic purposes”. They pledged to “move more rapidly toward more market-determined exchange rate systems and exchange rate flexibility to reflect underlying fundamentals, and avoid persistent exchange rate misalignments and in this regard, work more closely with one another so we can grow together. The leaders cautioned that “excess volatility of financial flows and disorderly movements in exchange rates have adverse implications for economic and financial stability” and warned against “competitive devaluation”.
We have a light economic calendar today. The Eurozone current account probably widened to 15.3B euro in December from 14.8B euro a month ago. The BOJ minutes released today would explain the factors triggering policymakers to leave monetary policies unchanged in February 14. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stated today that "it would be necessary to proceed with revising the BOJ law if the central bank cannot produce results under its own mandate”. Concerning weakness in Japanese, Abe said that the BOJ’s monetary policy is not directly aimed at depreciating the currency. Yet, it is one of the key factors driving recent decline in the yen.
Commitments of Traders:
With the exception of gasoline, speculators were bullish towards the energy complex in the week ended February 12. Net length for crude oil futures rose +6 071 contracts to 272 875. Net length for heating oil added +6 662 contracts to 38 394 while that for gasoline slipped -100 contracts to 94 413. Net short for natural gas slid -6 100 contracts to 138 655.
Speculators were mixed towards precious metals during the week. Net length for gold future was down -10 630 contracts to 126 835 while that for silver futures fell 3 789 contracts to 37 072. For PGMs, net length for platinum added +672 contracts to 50 138 while that for palladium climbed +1 079 contracts to 25 884.
Latest Analysis from this Author
Gold Weekly Technical Outlook (Saturday, 16 March 2013 10:05 ET)Silver Weekly Technical Outlook (Saturday, 16 March 2013 10:05 ET)Crude Oil Weekly Technical Outlook (Saturday, 16 March 2013 10:05 ET)Natural Gas Weekly Technical Outlook (Saturday, 16 March 2013 10:04 ET)Weekly Fundamentals - WTI- Brent Spread Narrowed o... (Saturday, 16 March 2013 02:38 ET)Strong US Data Sent Shares to New Highs (Friday, 15 March 2013 01:03 ET)Economic Calendar 3/15/13 (Thursday, 14 March 2013 22:13 ET)IEA Lowered Global Oil Demand Growth Forecast for ... (Thursday, 14 March 2013 08:50 ET)Crude Weakened on Inventory Increase (Wednesday, 13 March 2013 23:14 ET)Economic Calendar 3/14/13 (Wednesday, 13 March 2013 23:12 ET)
No comments:
Post a Comment