| Time | Country | Event | Period | Previous value | Forecast | Actual |
|---|
| 00:30 | Australia | National Australia Bank's Business Confidence | December | -3 | 3 | -2 |
| 07:45 | France | Consumer confidence | January | 89 | 90 | 92 |
During today's Asian trading, the US dollar rose significantly against major currencies after hitting a 6-week low yesterday amid news from China related to artificial intelligence. Today's currency rebound was triggered by new tariff threats from the United States, as Donald Trump announced that he plans to impose tariffs on imported computer chips, pharmaceuticals and steel to force manufacturers to make them in the United States.
The US Dollar Currency Index (DXY), which tracks the dynamics of the dollar against six currencies (euro, swiss franc, yen, canadian dollar, pound sterling and swedish krona) rose by 0.58% to 107.96. Yesterday, the index fell by 0.09% and reached its lowest level since December 18 after a free and open-source artificial intelligence model from Chinese startup DeepSeek raised questions about the dominance of American leaders in artificial intelligence such as Nvidia. Gradually, the focus of investors' attention is shifting to the Fed meeting, the results of which will be announced on Wednesday. According to forecasts, the Fed is set to leave interest rates unchanged after cutting them at each of the last three meetings. Economic growth was strong at the beginning of 2025, and inflation turned out to be less favorable than the FOMC would have liked. Comments from many Fed officials highlighted the risks of further policy easing, given that PCE inflation remains at 2.4% year-on-year and core PCE inflation is 2.8%. Although the risks to the inflationary side of the Fed's dual mandate remain clear, the risks to the employment mandate have decreased slightly compared to a few months earlier. As for the outlook, the Fed is likely to stick to current policy settings in the first half of the year. Then two rate cuts of 25 basis points are expected during the meetings in September and December.
The yen fell 0.7% against the US dollar after rising 0.68% yesterday and reaching its highest level since December 18 amid increased demand for safe haven assets. Meanwhile, today's data showed that a leading indicator of Japan's service-sector inflation hit 2.9% in December. The Bank of Japan is closely monitoring service sector inflation to see if the prospects for sustained wage growth will force companies to continue raising prices and keep inflation steady at around 2%. The Bank of Japan last week raised interest rates to the highest level since the global financial crisis in 2008 and raised its inflation forecasts, underscoring its confidence that wage growth will keep inflation stable around its 2% target.