Morning Update – 24/11/2016 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St was quiet into the Thanksgiving Holiday today but did manage to close up marginally even with a soaring USD again. Again all the action in the FX and bond markets. The Nikkei after being closed yesterday was up 0.94%.. Last night’s FOMC Mins: largely in line with expectations.. broad agreement that case for rate hike continued to strengthen; most members think it will relatively soon become appropriate for a hike; some think that a Dec hike will maintain Fed credibility; if jobless rate is left too low for too long it might require raising rates steeply, terminating economic expansion; near term economic outlook risks are roughly balanced; further USD appreciation could renew disinflationary pressures.. Overnight in Japan; November prelim Manufacturing PMI misses: 51.1 vs 51.4 coms and USDJPY held all the gains made in the NY session. BoJ’s Nakaso: BoJ has ability and means to engineer exit from ultra-loose policy when the time comes but not appropriate to discuss specifics at present; (commenting on JGB holdings in parliament) could see unrealised loss if rates rise; does not think unrealised loss would cause loss of trust. Nikkei (cites MoF’s FX Head Asakawa): Japanese FX policy will not change after Pres-elect Trump forms administration; Japan FX policy based on G7 agreement.. The dollar remained elevated but EUR still above 1.0525 support for now and USDJPY just below 113.00 still. This morning we get French Business and manufacturing confidence, Swedish Consumer confidence and PPI and Spanish GDP. We also get German IFO data.. good luck..