ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: NZD jumps on rate hike forecast

• IMF says Bank of Japan should consider ending its YCC and massive asset purchases now
• RBA Governor Bullock warned on inflation today, market pushed rate hike forecasts later
• Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Lorie Logan speaks Friday
• Biden administration considers import restrictions on Chinese smart cars
• Putin says that Russia hasn’t achieved all its goals in Ukraine yet, won’t invade Poland
• ECB’s Piero Cipollone speaks on Friday
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda says chances are high of accommodative conditions to stay
• PBoC sets USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1036 (vs exp. 7.1996)
• Goldman Sachs on the US CPI data (revisions) due Friday
• Senior Japan official tries to water down BOJ’s Uchida’s comments yesterday
• RBA Bullock: If consumption slows quicker than expected will be opportunity to cut rates
• ANZ are expecting the RBNZ to hike its cash rate in February and in April, to 6%
• Japan finance minister Suzuki says closely watching FX rate moves
• No rate cut expected from the People’s Bank of China in February
• RBA Bullock: Recent inflation developments are encouraging, some way to go to meet target
• Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock speaks very soon – live link
• Deutsche Bank Securities looks for S&P 500 to as high as 5500 , says its not about the Fed
• Goldman Sachs report on the struggling Australian dollar amid rising global equities
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Early USD gains erased, SPX touches 5000
• Trade ideas thread – Friday, 9 February, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

With
Chinese markets closed now for the long Lunar New Year holidays it
was over to New Zealand today for some fireworks.

ANZ
New Zealand dropped a huge out-of-consensus call into the mix, forecasting a
Reserve Bank of New Zealand rate hike at the Bank’s next policy
meeting on February 28, and also for another at the following meeting
on April 10. The current RBNZ Official Cash Rate (OCR) is 5.5%, the
two 25bp rate hikes that ANZ expect would take it to 6%. NZD/USD
jumped higher, from around 0.6095 to be sitting close to its session
high as I post

From
across the ditch (the Tasman Sea that separates New Zealand from
Australia) we had Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Bullock speaking
in parliament, before the House of Representatives Standing Committee
on Economics. Bullock didn’t add anything different to her comments
earlier in the week after the RBA’s first policy meeting of the
year. The main message was that while the inflation rate has been
coming lower there
is
still
some way to go to meet the midpoint of the central bank’s target
range of 2-3%. Bullock
said that the Bank
has not ruled out another rise in interest rates, should
that be necessary. She highlighted:

• “while
  we don’t necessarily need services inflation to be at the midpoint
  of the 2–3 per cent range to meet our target, we do need it to be
  quite a bit lower than it currently is.”

I
think its very safe to say there is no prospect of an imminent cash
rate cut from the Bank.

Also
speaking in parliament (Japan’s) today was Bank of Japan Governor
Ueda. Ueda backed up the comments from his Deputy Uchida on Thursday
who said that financial conditions in Japan will remain easy even
after the BOJ puts an end to its negative rate policy.

While
the New Zealand dollar rose during the session elsewhere for other
major-trade FX its was mainly very quiet and tightly range-bound.