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A small pullback should not be misleading, sell-off of risks will continue. Overview of USD, CAD, JPY

The markets slightly recovered after a sharp decline on Monday, but there are no special reasons for a positive return.

News regarding the coronavirus is disappointing. According to the head of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 83% of new cases in the US are associated with the Delta strain, compared with 50% a week earlier, and if the trend towards a worsening of the situation continues, another package of restrictive measures may be required. These fears increase the flight from risk.

The tension was supported by the Bank of Australia. The minutes of the RBA published yesterday noted that the economic results are still far from meeting the Bank's inflation and employment target, and therefore, the arguments in favor of maintaining the procurement program at the level of $ 5 billion per week remain. Moreover, the RBA provoked the situation through the media, suggesting that if the current restrictions in Sydney and the Victoria District last until August, the Bank will have arguments in favor of canceling the July decision to reduce the volume of purchases. This decision is also in favor of an increase in demand for protective assets.

It can be assumed that the demand for protective assets will dominate in the coming days again, and the US dollar will continue to rise against commodity currencies.

USD/CAD

After the Bank of Canada's meeting last week, where it left monetary policy unchanged (a decline in purchases from $ 3 billion to $ 2 billion per week was expected and confirmed), no significant macroeconomic events occurred. The rate hike is expected in the second half of 2022, which is around the same time as the forecast for the Fed rate. There was no harsh reaction to the improvement in the economic situation, which somewhat disappointed the bulls. It seems that BoC will adhere to cautious positions and does not intend to be the first to make poorly calculated steps.

The net long position on CAD fell by 1.2 billion during the reporting week. This is quite a deep adjustment. And although the advantage remains for the Canadian dollar (+2.1 billion), the trend is clearly not in its favor. The estimated price rises.

The Canadian dollar passed the resistance level of 1.2626 almost without stopping, not giving any reason to wait for a decline. Thus, the movement to the next target of 1.3010/20 is justified. The need for a correction may interfere since the spot price has gone significantly higher than the calculated one, but it is logical to use any decline for purchases.

USD/JPY

The nationwide core consumer price index rose by 0.2% y/y in June. This is the second month above zero and the growth slightly exceeded the forecast. For Japan, which has been suffering from deflation for several decades, even such minimal growth is already positive.

However, it is clearly too early to be optimistic. On August 20, data for the base year 2020 will be published. There will be new significant factors, which will reduce the inflation index by 0.2% according to the calculations of Mizuho Bank; hence, a slight downward shift is expected. This means that the Bank of Japan's plans to disperse inflation to 2% remains a dream.

The seemingly positive dynamics in the corporate prices and import prices, which showed +2.3% in June – the maximum since 1981, will not help either. The reason here is almost exclusively in the growth of oil prices, and since the growth of consumer incomes remains consistently low, there is no need to wait for inflation growth.

In other words, there are no signs that the Bank of Japan can follow other central banks to consider measures to exit from the super-soft policy.

Japanese yen's net short position declined by 1.456 billion. The demand increased amid a flight from risk. The estimated price is confidently turning down after a long period of stagnation.