The $/Yen parity was the most closely watched on March 19, but in the end we witnessed one of the rare sessions of the year where the pair ended opposite to expectations, with the Yen falling -1.2% against the $ towards 150.90, despite the BoJ's 1st rate hike in 17 years.

It could have provided support for the yen, but traders 'sold the news' that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) had decided to normalize its monetary policy by raising its key rate to contain the resurgence of inflation and rising wage tensions in the country.
By a large majority, the BoJ committee decided to put an end to 8 years of negative interest rates, opting for a key rate of between 0% and 0.1%, as opposed to -0.1%.
The fall in the yen alone explains the +0.4% rise in the $-Index to 103.85.
The FOREX is taking a wait-and-see attitude towards other pairs (E/$, $/CHF, and $/£) on the eve of the FED's final statement (which should be without surprises).

There were US figures on Tuesday: both housing starts and building permits were up in February, according to statistics from the Commerce Department.
Housing starts rebounded by 10.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 1,521,000, a much stronger recovery than expected.

The number of building permits issued in February rose by 1.9% to 1.518,000, again exceeding financial market expectations.
Economists were expecting a rebound in both statistics in February, after the unfavorable weather in January had weighed heavily on the residential construction sector.

In Europe, the "number of the day" was Germany's ZEW business climate index, which rose for the 8th month in a row.
This indicator gained 11.8 points between February and March 2023 to stand at 31.7 points, its highest level for 12 months.

"Economic conditions in Germany are fragile, so it will be interesting to see whether things have changed in March before the PMI indices are published on Thursday", explains Danske Bank.

Despite a deterioration in British Gilts (+1Pt to 4.1030%), cable ($/£) ended perfectly unchanged at 1.2725.

Gold, for its part, remains stuck at $2,155.


Copyright (c) 2024 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.