Markets pause ahead of FOMC

Equities edge lower

Activity in Asia was muted during this morning’s session, with no new developments on the trade negotiation front to drive trading and a looming Federal Reserve meeting cramping volumes.

US indices tended to drift lower during the morning, sliding between 0.07% and 0.08% while the Japan225 index under-performed with losses of about 0.3%.

Currencies were a bit more mixed, USD/JPY was little changed, AUD/USD rallied 0.06% while the pound under-performed after the latest YouGov poll showed a narrower margin between the Conservatives and Labour for tomorrow’s election. GBP/USD fell 0.14% to 1.3137, the first negative day in three days. Trendline support may be found around the 1.2965 level.

GBP/USD Daily Chart

Source: OANDA fxTrade

The “un-live” Fed meeting

Today’s calendar in very US-centric, with consumer prices for November the supporting bill before the FOMC meeting. Prices are expected to rise 0.2% m/m, a slower pace than October’s +0.4%. The Fed’s rate meeting is not expected to result in any change in rates, especially following last Friday’s stellar US jobs report for November. Indeed, market pricing implies zero chance of a rate cut at this meeting. If anything, the Fed can more convincingly say that the economy is in a “good place” and that they can afford to sit back and wait and see what happens to the economy.

The Fed is also due to release fresh economic projections which might introduce some excitement to an otherwise mundane statement. It could get interesting if growth forecasts were lowered.

The full MarketPulse data calendar can be viewed at https://www.marketpulse.com/economic-events/

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