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On the evening of October 28, the Fed left the rate at 3.75-4%, although US inflation is still above the 2% target. The decision was not unanimous: two votes went for a 0.25 percentage point hike - a rare picture that immediately pushed currencies in different directions.
The decision was made by a vote of 10 to 2: Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack insisted on an immediate 0.25 percentage point increase. Six weeks earlier, the committee had made the same decision unanimously.
South Korean Mirae Asset has agreed to buy the proprietary trading division from Japan's Okasan Securities. The deal is worth about $32 million, and through it the Korean group is entering the Japanese market. Nikkei Asia reported the deal on October 28.
The pair recovered from a drop to a monthly low around 156.00 and returned almost to 158.00 in a V-shaped move - the third consecutive rising session. The dollar is being pulled up ahead of the Fed decision, which will be released today at 21:00 Moscow time.
The Bank of Canada announces its rate decision midday, the Fed in the evening. USD/CAD is rising for a second day and has already bounced from 1.3970-1.3965, the low since September 16, climbing above 1.4000 - a new weekly high.
Today at 21:00 MSK the Federal Reserve will announce its rate decision, the forecast is 4.00%, the same as last time. At 21:30 MSK the press conference of Fed Chair Warsh will begin, and it is precisely this that usually moves the market more than the number itself.
On Tuesday XAU/USD hit an intraday low of $3,989, reversed and gained more than 1%, rising to $4,061. The rally occurred despite a stronger dollar and rising US Treasury yields.
Japanese Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said on Tuesday, October 27, that the government is ready for decisive action in the currency market. This is a direct hint at intervention - selling dollars from reserves to support the yen.
WTI crude (the U.S. benchmark grade, with futures traded on the NYMEX exchange) slipped on Monday from its peak level of $103.28 - a five-month high - to around $100.51. The market paused ahead of a week with three central bank meetings at once.
On Monday, October 26, the dollar strengthened against major currencies ahead of the Fed meeting on Wednesday. The yen is the weakest in the basket, the pound slipped from its recent peak of 1.3419 to levels below 1.3350.
September consumer price data was released at 02:30 Moscow time and came in above August levels across all measures. The yen strengthened, and the market is once again betting on a Bank of Japan rate hike in December.
GMO Internet's cloud hosting, where traders keep MetaTrader terminals and trading robots, was hacked. Broker OANDA Securities Japan postponed client payouts on October 22 to check applications for fraudulent transfers.
On Thursday, October 22, Asian markets crashed: China's CSI 300 index lost 2% during the session and fell 20% from its June high. A 20% drop from the peak is the formal definition of a bear market.
XAU/USD touched a fresh weekly low: on Tuesday gold closed at $4,122 (-0.43%), and in the Asian session on Wednesday it traded around $4,115 (-0.2%). This is the fourth consecutive day of decline, all because the market expects the Fed to raise rates rather than cut them.
On October 16, the U.S. Treasury publicly stated that Japan is no longer living in deflation, which means the yen exchange rate must reflect this. This is a repeated call for Tokyo to strengthen the JPY against the USD.
On Friday morning, three signals at once from the Bank of Japan in favor of a further rate hike supported the yen, and the USD/JPY pair slid to 157.85. The regulator's next meeting is on October 29-30.
Over the past 24 hours, leveraged positions worth $951.4 million were liquidated on the crypto market, with $876.3 million coming from longs. Bitcoin dropped to $80,764, while Ethereum lost more than 6%.
At the Bank of Japan, they are leaning toward leaving the rate unchanged at the October 30 meeting. Against this backdrop, the probability of an October hike has fallen to about 10%, and USD/JPY is holding near 158.50, close to monthly highs.
G7 countries plan to release up to 100 million barrels of diesel fuel and crude oil from strategic reserves. On this news, oil fell by about 3%, but later the decline stopped due to persistent geopolitical risks surrounding Iran.
September Tokyo inflation came in above forecast across all key measures. Core CPI accelerated to 2.7%, while the measure excluding food and energy reached 3.0%. The yen responded with strengthening, and USD/JPY dropped below 158.00.
USD/JPY rose to 158.44, and the yen lost about 0.5% after the release of the Bank of Japan's summary of opinions. The market saw no signal in the document for a rate hike as early as October, and the absence of currency interventions further increased pressure on the yen.
