News and analysis

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) kept Australia’s cash rate unchanged at 4.35% in May but refrained from increasing its longer-term underlying inflation forecasts, limiting the risk of a near-term interest rate hike.

Gold continues to consolidate below just record highs, paying scant attention to movements in other markets and geopolitical headlines since the start of May. As such, until we receive a definitive signal on direction, range trading is favoured near-term.

Tuesday looms as a potential make-or-break session for Australia’s ASX 200 with futures sitting at a key technical level on the charts ahead of the RBA interest rate decision. One saving grace may be the continued rebound in iron ore futures in Singapore.

Both gold and GBP/JPY are showing signs of stability around key support levels to suggest they could extend their bounce. But with AUD/USD rising for four days on anticipation of a hawkish RBA, whether AUD/USD can extend its rally beyond resistance is up for question.

The risks for GBP/USD are tilted toward a topside breakout and continuation toward 1.2700 if the BOE and UK GDP play along.

Crude Oil price forecasts lean towards bullish sentiment as volatility drops towards decade lows. Is this the calm before the storm?

Stickiness in services and domestic inflation, accompanied by continued resilience in labour market conditions, points to the likelihood of the RBA striking a more hawkish tone in its May monetary policy meeting, creating upside risks for the Australian dollar

The BOJ's intervention prevented large speculators from reaching a record level of net-short exposure, asset managers continued to trim net-long exposure to the US dollar and US indices and also flipped to net-long the VIX.

The game for USD/JPY changed last week. The likely intervention from the BOJ on at least one occasion to support the Japanese yen, coupled with a large reversal in US bond yields, means the extremely successful strategy of buying dips may have run its course near-term.