The Day Ahead: Top 3 Things to Watch
Investing.com - Here’s a preview of the top 3 things that could rock markets tomorrow
European Central Bank minutes
The minutes of the European Central Bank meeting in September due Thursday is expected to provide investors with fresh insight into the European central bank view on tapering its bond buying programme.
In September the ECB left all policy rates unchanged and did not announce any tweaks to forward guidance. The central bank, however, is widely expected to begin winding down its massive bond buying programme from January next year amid comments from ECB president Mario Draghi.
At the September ECB press conference Mr. Draghi said policy makers had preliminary discussions about the program, and said they would make the “bulk” of the decisions about tapering late next month.
EUR/USD rose 0.15% to $1.1763.
Fed speakers in the spotlight
Investors will parse comments from several Fed speakers slated for Thursday’s session eager for clues about the Federal Reserve outlook on future monetary policy.
Fed Governor Jerome Powell, San Francisco Fed President John Williams, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker and Kansas City Fed President Esther George are on list of Fed speakers due Thursday.
Investors are likely to pay close attention to comments from Fed Governor Jerome Powell amid reports suggesting that Powell is the front runner to replace Janet Yellen when her term as Fed chair ends in February.
The dollar fell against its rivals on Wednesday.
UK monetary policy in focus
Speeches by Bank of England policymakers McCafferty and Haldane could offer sterling fresh direction.
Bank of England Chief Economist Andrew Haldane recently said a rate hike would be “good news” as it would point to an improving UK economy.
The speeches come amid rising expectations the Bank of England will hike rates for the first in a decade in November. BoE governor Mark Carney noted recently following a Bank of England policy meeting that the possibility of a rate hike has “definitely increased”.
GBP/USD rose 0.17% to $1.3257.
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