Central Banks weekly results, Coronavirus, Fed & BoE

Last week was marked by meetings of the Bank of Japan, Bank of Canada and the ECB. The first wave of decisions showed that the central banks are not yet ready for any changes in monetary policy. You can understand them: at the current rate of economic growth, raising the rate is impractical, and there is nowhere to lower it (at least in the case of the Bank of Japan and the ECB).

ECB expected to detail the new monetary strategy but did not get it. According to the head of the Central Bank Lagarde, before November December 2020, it will not be.

This week will be the second wave of meetings of the Central Banks. The Fed will announce its decisions on Wednesday and the Bank of England on Thursday. With the Fed, the intrigue is minimal, but there are doubts about the Bank of England - a number of analysts predict a rate cut. But we will talk about this closer to Thursday.

The main global event of the past week was the coronavirus epidemic in China. The situation looks quite menacing. About 40 million people are limited in mobility. The tourist season is disrupted (all this happens at the height of the celebration of the Lunar New Year). Economists are only just beginning to calculate possible losses, but it is already clear that the damage will be very significant. But events are still only at the progress stage.

It is very likely that this week will also be marked by growing fears in the investor environment in connection with the epidemic. We cannot but note that risky assets (primarily stock markets) are potentially under attack. But safe-haven assets, on the contrary, have good chances for growth. So this week we are again buying gold and the Japanese yen.

In addition, we will continue to sell the Russian ruble: the formation of a new government, a hasty and generally dubious constitutional reform, the outcome of risky assets - all these are good reasons for the correction of the ruble.

On Friday, January 31, Great Britain officially leaves the European Union. This is an occasion to recall the pound and its purchases. Recall, when the markets were just beginning to believe in the “soft” Brexit, the pound grew to the area of 1.41-1.43. Now it is becoming a reality, but the pound is quoted at about 1.31. Which in itself is a reason to think about buying it.