🌏 Asia-Pacific markets
Trading is muted at week’s end:
🇨🇳 China: -0.30% to -0.45%
🇦🇺 Australia: +0.15%
🇸🇬 Singapore (SG20cash): -0.15%
🇯🇵 Japan’s JP225 leads with +1.60% after a major US-Japan trade deal update.
🤝 Trade breakthrough
Japan secured a US pledge to amend a tariff order, refund overpaid duties, and cap affected goods at 15%. US auto tariffs will also drop from 27.5% to 15%. 🇯🇵 officials admitted earlier discrepancies but stressed there’s no dispute over reciprocal tariffs.
💱 USDJPY jumped above 147.350.
🏦 Bank of Japan insights
July’s Summary of Opinions shows division over rate hikes — some urge action to avoid sharper tightening later, others prefer patience amid uncertainty. Inflation, trade, and geopolitics remain in focus. Yen continues to weaken 📉.
🏅 Gold market shake-up
🇺🇸 US imposes 15% tariffs on large gold bars (1 kg & 100 oz) used for COMEX delivery.
This may:
🔹 Disrupt London–New York bullion flows
🔹 Force short positions to close or roll over
🔹 Tighten funding for bullion banks
🔹 Boost COMEX’s role in gold price discovery
🔹 Reduce Switzerland’s refining dominance
💵 Fed outlook
JP Morgan now sees faster rate cuts starting September, citing a weakening labour market. Fed funds futures price in 59 bps of cuts by year-end 📉.
💡 Stay tuned with NordFX — market volatility could be just getting started. 🚀