Morning Update – 20/09/2016 – by Arjun Lakhanpal

Morning all.. Wall St was up for most of the session but couldn’t hold the gains into the close so close to a  Fed decision and closed unchanged on the day. Asia was quiet but the Nikkei after a day off on Monday also drifted off into the close to finish down 0.32%.. G10 FX and global markets tracked sideways ahead of the key central bank decisions in BOJ and Fed decisions tomorrow. All G10 FX remained in ~15bps ranges from LDN close yesterday with NZD the sole out-performer versus the USD. Its Antipodean partner in AUD had a more choppy session after the release of the RBA’s September Board Minutes. Overall, the RBA provided little in the way of forward guidance and the policy stance appeared a neutral one with only a number of marginal changes; Japan returned from holiday but volumes remained light as USDJPY remained in a ~30-pip range. Elsewhere former BOJ board member Shirai was on the wires advocating rate cuts over further asset purchases in a repeat of previous comments. In commodities space, oil halted its gains with Brent in particular dipping below $46 whilst precious metals were mostly higher. However odds of a hike remain at just 20%. This morning looks like being quiet in front of the BoJ and Fed meetings and we have no data today. Good luck..