USD/JPY: Dollar pares gains after Harker says Fed’s done enough with rates

• Atlanta Fed’s GDP estimate sees real Q3 GDP growth of 5.9%, up from last week’s 5.8%
• Fed Chair Powell’s Jackson Hole Speech is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:05 am EST
• Fed’s Harker (voter) says they’ve done enough with rates while Fed’s Collins (non-voter) more rate hikes may be needed

As Wall Street awaits Fed Chair Powell’s Jackson Hole speech, some traders shifted their focus to Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Patrick Harker’s CNBC interview. When talking about interest Harker said, “Right now, I think that we’ve probably done enough.” Harker is a voting member of the FOMC and he appears to be positioning himself to turn dovish in the near future. He also noted that, “I’m in the camp of, let the restrictive stance work for a while, let’s just let this play out for a while, and that should bring inflation down.”

He added that if inflation comes down quicker, they may cut rates sooner. A month ago, Harker was saying that they are making progress with inflation and that sometime next year the Fed will start cutting rates.

Harker for most of this year has been viewed as a neutral FOMC voting member, one notch below Fed Chair Powell who has being leaning-hawkish.  Harker’s dovish comments don’t imply that is what we will get from Fed Chair Powell, but it does suggest the committee might be gaining confidence that they will be able to bring down inflation to the Fed’s 2% target.

Fed’s Collins, a non-voter noted that “We may need additional increments, and we may be very near a place where we can hold for a substantial amount of time.”

Foreign Investment Flows

US stocks initially rallied after Nvidia’s miraculous earnings reignited the AI trade.  If AI is the future, then Nvidia is the “fluxcapacitor” that will drive the biggest transformation in tech since the Back to the Future trilogy wrapped up in the 1990s.  With Europe looking more recession bound, foreign investment might steadily come to US equities and that should support US equities.

It is clear that massive investments are coming AI’s way and that could keep stock market bulls very happy as long as we don’t have Fed Chair Powell spoil the party.  If the bond market selloff doesn’t resume after Powell’s speech, the stock market might have a bullish case to make a run at record highs, which should provide underlying support for the dollar.

US data keeps Fed rate hike expectations low for the September 20th

This morning’s round of data didn’t really move the needle on Fed rate hike expectations.  Yesterday odds were at 12% and today they rose to 17% for the September 20th meeting.

Filings for unemployment benefits came in less than expected, signaling that the labor market is slowly cooling.  Initial jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 230,000, while continuing claims dipped from 1.711 million to 1.702 million.  A surge in claims (+3.7K) came from Hawaii as they were heavily impacted by the devastating wildfires. Jobless claims will likely stabilize or rise going forward. Durable goods order data showed business spending activity barely increased as companies became more cautious with the budget. ​ Bookings for all durable goods tumbled ​ given softness with the volatile commercial aircraft orders. ​ Businesses are turning very cautious here given how high borrowing costs have gotten and over the deteriorating outlook for business equipment.

USD/JPY 60-minute chart

USD/JPY (60-minute chart) as of Thursday (8/24/2023) shows the bullish move that started yesterday has continued by respecting short-term trendline support(shown in purple).  If we see a substantial rally towards last October’s high, that could trigger intervention pressure from Japan.  If the surge in Treasury yields continues, that could provide some tactical bullish positioning between the 145.00-148.00 region. If risk aversion emerges post Jackson Hole, the 143.50  level provides major support and a possible re-entry for long-term bulls.

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