Morning Update – 14/04/16 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St had another good session closing up 1% again and the theme continued in Asia.. The Nikkei closed up just shy of 3% and most Asian markets were higher as the Monetary Authority of Singapore eased in Singapore. The MAS has announced that it is to slow the pace of appreciation in the Singapore Dollar by moving to a neutral policy of zero percent (after the Bank had previously allowed the currency to appreciate) with policy makers warning that the ‘Singapore economy is projected to expand at a more modest pace in 2016 than envisaged in the October policy review’. According to Bloomberg only 6 of 18 economists had expected a change in policy and you have to go back to 2008 to find the last time the MAS moved to a 0% appreciation rate. The Singapore Dollar has weakened close to 0.9% post the news, the biggest decline in three months while other currencies in the Asia region have weakened similar amounts (with the Kiwi Dollar in particular under pressure after the RBNZ confirmed that the March rate cut announcement was leaked early). AUD rallied as unemployment fell but elsewhere the USD remained firm with USDJPY making a high of 109.55 and EUR moving lower to 1.1254.. GBP and Kiwi were the big losers.. No news on Cable .. Oil 1.6% lower.. This morning we get Italian and EU Inflation data and the BoE rate announcement, where we’re not expecting any surprises. Away from the data we’ll hear from the Fed’s Lockhart (3.00pm BST) and Powell (3.00pm BST) today, as well the IMF’s Lagarde (2.30pm BST). As noted earlier the highlight from the earnings releases due today are Bank of America and Wells Fargo, while Delta Airlines will also release their latest quarterly.. Good luck..