BOJ Holds Interest Rates Steady, Upgrades Growth and Inflation Outlook for Japan 
Philippine Economy Slows in Late 2025, Raising Expectations of Further Rate Cuts 
Starmer’s China Visit Signals New Era in UK–China Economic Relations 
Gold Prices Fall Amid Rate Jitters; Copper Steady as China Stimulus Eyed 
UK Housing Market Gains Momentum in Early 2026 as Mortgage Rates Fall 
South Korea Industry Minister Heads to Washington Amid U.S. Tariff Hike Concerns 
ECB’s Cipollone Backs Digital Euro as Europe Pushes for Payment System Independence 
Philippine Central Bank Signals Steady Interest Rates as Inflation Rises and Growth Slows 
Asian Stocks Waver as Trump Signals Fed Pick, Shutdown Deal and Tech Earnings Stir Markets 
U.S. and El Salvador Sign Landmark Critical Minerals Agreement to Boost Investment and Trade 
U.S. Prosecutors Investigate Fed Chair Jerome Powell Over Headquarters Renovation 
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The Federal Reserve is expected to maintain its dovish stance with the Fed Funds Futures market almost fully pricing in two 25 bp rate cuts by end2020. It will finally prop up EM Asian currencies as the 2019-nCoV outbreak is likely to show signs of stabilization in the next one to two weeks as Dr Zhong and Dr Zhang said earlier, according to the latest research report from Scotiabank.
US real consumer spending nudged up 0.1 percent m/m in December, down from a 0.3 percent m/m growth in the prior month. In the meantime, US consumer income increased 0.2 percent m/m in December compared to market estimate of 0.3 percent m/m, which casted a shadow on the outlook for consumption growth this year.
In addition, PCE inflation and core PCE inflation, the Fed’s favourite inflation gauges, both came in at 1.6 percent y/y in December. It indicated still-muted inflationary pressures, the report added.
While the FOMC last week judged the current stance of monetary policy is appropriate to support sustained expansion of economic activity, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at his post FOMC press conference that the Fed is "not comfortable with inflation running persistently below our 2 percent symmetric objective."
"We maintain our short USD/CNH and short USD/INR positions as China’s central bank is expected to defend the yuan exchange rate amid hovering concerns over the 2019-nCoV outbreak," Scotiabank further commented in the report.
Meanwhile, the PBoC said in a statement dated February 2 that it will conduct CNY 1.5tn of reverse repos on Monday when onshore markets reopen after the extended Chinese New Year holiday, injecting a net CNY150 billion of funds to the banking system for onshore financial market stability.
