Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Yen weakens for the first time this week after Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda says, theoretically, there is room to cut rate to minus 0.50% and that there is a chance this will happen. ** BOJ Deputy Governor Iwata says effects of tax increase in 2014 much stronger and longer than expected, and central bank erred on expectations; Columbia University’s Joseph Stiglitz says he has told Prime Minister Abe that now is a wrong time to raise Japan’s sales tax

• Offshore yuan weakens for third day; nation has a lot of room to ease monetary policy in the long run: China Securities Journal; central bank to create appropriate monetary and financial environment this year, Financial News reports
• Kiwi declines versus dollar; New Zealand had a current- account deficit of NZ$2.61b in fourth quarter, less than median estimate for NZ$2.88b shortfall; deficit was 3.1% of GDP in year through December versus forecast 3.3% gap; central bank says stress test shows banks can cope with dairy downturn
• Won declines; South Korea’s unemployment rate jumped to 4.1% in February from 3.5% in January, highest since 2010 and above median forecast of 3.6%; extra spending isn’t necessary even though nation has more fiscal room compared with other countries: Finance Minister Yoo; says current won movement “not rapid”
• U.S. Treasuries rise, with yield on 10-year bonds sliding 1 bp to 1.966% before FOMC policy decision in which majority of economists surveyed expect rate to be held

(Bloomberg) -- Bank Indonesia may cut benchmark rate again tomorrow if economists’ forecasts are anything to go by, Bloomberg strategist David Finnerty writes.

• Central bank will reduce reference rate by 25 bps, according to 15 of 24 economists in Bloomberg survey, with nine forecasting no change
• Policy makers may be emboldened to cut rates given that core inflation continues to decelerate, rupiah remains stable and China’s economy continues to slow
• Core consumer prices rose 3.59% in Feb., the least in data going back to 2014; headline CPI accelerated to 4.36% from 4.14%, but still remains within 2016 target of 3%-5% increase
• Central bank lowered benchmark rate by 25 bps for a second consecutive meeting last month
• Rupiah has advanced 4.7% this year, the second-best performance among Asia’s most-traded currencies, amid an increase in foreign holdings of local bonds and equities
• NOTE: David Finnerty is an FX strategist who writes for Bloomberg. The observations he makes are his own and are not intended as investment advice.

(Bloomberg) -- Continued weak external demand is likely to keep Singapore’s non-oil domestic exports under pressure if economists’ predictions prove correct.

• Exports probably fell 0.8% y/y following 9.9% decline in Jan., median est. in Bloomberg survey shows; ests. range from -9.7% to +11.7%; data due at 8:30am local time tomorrow
• Singapore’s purchasing managers index slid to 48.5 last month from 49.0 in Jan., data released on March 2 showed
• Jan. exports were weaker than the -7.7% expected in survey, according to data released Feb. 17; USD/SGD fell 0.2% that day to close at 1.4033
• USD/SGD now at 1.3806

--MICHAEL SIN