US President Trump and the Chinese president Xi Jinping, are scheduled to meet in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, this Thursday April 6.
There are some sensitive issues between the US and China, such as trade protectionism, currency manipulation, South China Sea claims and North Korea’s nuclear program. Trump stated that if China doesn’t take actions to rein in the development of nuclear strength in North Korea then the US will act alone. President Xi expressed in mid-March that ‘the mutual benefits between the two nations outweighs the conflicts with cooperation as the only right choice for long term development’.
On Monday evening, FOMC voting member Harker stated that ‘the Fed is likely to raise rates twice more this year’ which is in line with the Fed’s ‘gradual’ rate hike pace. USD strengthened this morning during early European session with the dollar index testing the 100.50 resistance level.
US non-farm payroll and unemployment for March will be released this Friday at 13:30 BST. The US labour market has remained solid, seeing more than 200,000 job gains per month in average over the past six months.
This morning the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced that rates will remain unchanged at 1.5% in line with expectations. However, the RBA made a dovish statement as the latest unemployment rate rose to a 13-month high. AUD/USD hit a 3-week low of 0.7561 this morning breaking the significant psychological support level at 0.7600.
Economic data for today is thin. UK construction PMI (Mar) to be released at 09:30 BST will likely affect GBP and GBP crosses. The US trade balance is released at 13:30 BST with Fed governor Tarullo making a speech at 21:30 BST.
Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda will make a speech at 08:15 BST on Wednesday April 5. Yen has been one of the best performing currencies over the past few months, as the recent risk events such as Trump’s healthcare bill and the triggering of Brexit, has resulted in the rallying of safe havens.
