Market Ignores Superb Japan GDP Figure, Waits For US Data

 | May 15, 2014 07:05AM ET

Japan’s Q1 growth figures look very good, but remember that some of the consumption demand for Q2 has been cannibalised by the knowledge of the impending 3 percent VAT increase from April 1. The Bank of Japan's governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, was out overnight speaking and generally talking up the potential for current BoJ policy to continue to encourage the hoped for rise in inflation, including in wages, as the output gap should narrow. He also suggested that the BoJ has the requisite tools if more policy measures become necessary. Australia: the Reserve Bank of Australia's Luci Ellis was also out speaking and said that he didn’t see a return of the 2003-style housing bubble and that housing credit is not growing that strongly overall. The harshness of the new proposed budget is seen as credit-positive by Moody’s and in the view of many, growth negative. Australian 2-year rates have settled to the lower end of the range of the last few months. Looking ahead The Eurozone April CPI data out this morning is the revision of the original figure released earlier this month, though the market is so touchy on the ECB’s view on inflation that a revision either way could see plenty of intraday volatility. Also look out for the Eurozone Q1 GDP estimate after the French and German data released earlier were mostly in line with expectations. Today, let’s see if the JPY crosses continue to show more directional promise. Yesterday saw breaks lower in the major European crosses versus the JPY, but the most important JPY pair, USDJPY, remains bogged down in a range since, believe it or not, January. The bond market is supportive of the JPY, and we would probably need a sharp sell-off in the US equities (particularly interesting as we just broke to new all-time highs recently after a long bout of range trading) to get a downside break below the local lows at 101.43 and the 200-day moving average in the 101.20 area. In EURUSD, it’s about whether the 1.3700/1.3675 zone gives way or whether we face a test of resistance first. It’s always a bit eerie when there is a large move followed by a very quiet consolidation in a tight range. Chart: EURUSD EURUSD has come a long way fast, but no one appears willing to step into buy, nor are the shorts reining in their positions, meaning we’ve seen hardly any bounce on the way down. The next two technical support of interest are the range support around 1.3675 and then the 200-day moving average around 1.3625. Below these and we’re open for a 1.3500 test. Save for one day last September, the pair has been trading above the 200-day moving average since last July.