Morning Update – 15/03/2017 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. We are in countdown to the Fed hike which is fully priced and expected tonight and in the meantime markets are treading water. Wall St closed down 0.34% as some took profits but it was a quiet affair. The Nikkei also drifted lower in a quiet session closing down 0.16% as USDJPY remained below 115.00. FX markets in a tight range again. The Dutch election has generated very little interest as the trend has been towards increasing support to mainstream parties. The electorate’s opinion might swing again following the last two debates. On the day of the vote, the first exit poll is expected at 9pm local time with reliable result within a few hours. However the EUR has weakened in the last 24 hours as we have been shocked with polls being wrong before.  EUR in a 25pip range in Asia but holding above 1.0600. GBP has rallied and possibly on a Times poll in Scotland suggesting the majority want to stay in the United Kingdom and GBP was the out-performer making a high of 1.2259 after a low in the session of 1.2148. Also the Times (cites Shadow MPC): BoE should prepare the ground for a possible rate hike in the minutes of their “next meeting”; 3 of 9 called for an immediate +25bp hike to combat higher inflation (NB. 4 members were calling for a hike before the Feb meeting). Elsewhere Japan final Jan Industrial Output: -0.41% m/m vs -0.8% prelim.. Sources: Japan FY17 base wage hikes seen lower than FY16; big firms offered less than half the union’s demands for pay rises. This morning we have French CPI, Italian Retail sales, UK and EU Unemployment.. Good luck