Morning Update – 22/03/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St had a wobble as it was suggested Trump may not get his repeal of Obamacare through at the vote tomorrow and stocks, the dollar and US yields all fell. Wall St closed down 1.24% (its biggest fall of the year so far) and Asia followed with the Nikkei down 2.13% as USDJPY got hit hard in both NY and Asia. We have now broken below support at 111.60 and this suggests a look at 110.00 some traders suggest. The low today was 111.33.. We saw the BoJ minutes last night and had some comments from BoJ members. BoJ’s Gov Kuroda: raising rates on excess reserves or lowering monetary base would be needed to exit QQE; BoJ’s JGB purchases do not lower Govt debt burden..BoJ’s Funo: mindful of downside risks to price outlook; BoJ must continue with strong easing despite market speculation for rate hikes; now is not the time to consider a shift in BoJ easing policy nor adjustment to bond yield target; Yield Curve Control having positive impact on economy; watching for side effects of policy; inflation likely to reach target in FY18 but possibly not before Kuroda’s term ends in April 2018; much more confidence in global economy outlook at a year ago; uncertainty over US trade and fiscal policies are risks to Japanese economy. On the data front Japan Feb Trade Surplus: 813.4bn vs 822.0bn cons; Exports: +11.3% vs +10.6% cons (fastest annual pace since Jan 2015); Imports: +1.2% vs +0.6% cons.. US yields remained soft in Asia and 10yr sits at 2.412% but off the lows. Oil is down 0.5%. This morning we get Danish Retail sales and EU current account data. Good luck.