CEE Morning Briefing: Hungary Bond Auction Eyed
January 18 2017 - 11:29PM
Dow Jones News
By Veronika Gulyas
TODAY'S CALENDAR
Local/GMT
1130/1030 Hungary government bond
auction
1400/1300 Poland Dec industrial
output, PPI, retail
GLOBAL NEWS
The markets on Thursday will focus on the European Central
Bank's first policy meeting of 2017.
The central bank is expected to keep interest rates unchanged,
just six weeks after it announced a major extension of its
quantitative-easing program. But all eyes will still be on the
press conference of ECB chief Mario Draghi, who will likely be
asked about the bank's next moves, including when it might start to
wind down, or taper, its QE program.
Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Wednesday defended
the central bank as a nonpartisan institution, saying it would
react to economic developments regardless of short-term political
pressures.
Ms. Yellen said the Fed would monitor the Trump administration's
fiscal policies and take action if they cause the economy to grow
too fast, potentially putting upward pressure on inflation.
"We are at a point where many economic policy changes are under
consideration and of course we will closely follow what happens
with economic policy," she said. "We will factor those into the
outlook and take account of their impact on what we need to do" to
achieve full employment and low, steady inflation, as mandated by
Congress.
Ms. Yellen said that as of last month, she and most Fed
officials expected to raise short-term interest rates "a few times
a year" through 2019. She offered no new hints about the likely
timing of the next rate increase.
IN FOCUS
Hungary plans to sell three-year, five-year and ten-year
government bonds at an auction Thursday. The country's debt
management center will offer 20 billion forints ($69.2 million) of
September 2020-dated bonds, HUF15 million of October 2022 bonds and
HUF10 billion of October 2027 bonds.
Poland's statistics office is set to release a string of data
for December. Economists expect industrial output to have stagnated
in December both in annual and monthly terms because of a strong
performance a year earlier as well as fewer workdays in December
2016.
Retail sales are expected to have expanded steadily this past
Christmas season, supported by the government's new childcare
benefit.
FOREX
EUR/CZK
0350 GMT 27.005-35
Previous 27.006-36
%Chg -0.01
EUR/HUF
0350 GMT 307.49-89
Previous 307.54-94
%Chg -0.02
EUR/PLN
0350 GMT 4.3614-32
Previous 4.3641-59
%Chg -0.06
FIXED INCOME
Hungary
Wed Tue
3-yrs 0.89% 0.91%
5-yrs 1.94% 1.91%
10-yrs 3.45% 3.40%
Poland
Wed Tue
3-yrs 1.97% 1.97%
5-yrs 2.86% 2.86%
10-yrs 3.62% 3.61%
Czech Republic
Wed Tue
3-yrs -0.83% -0.79%
5-yrs -0.40% -0.41%
10-yrs 0.32% 0.31%
STOCKS (Closing)
WIG 20
2005.65 -0.5%
BUX
32841.25 +0.2%
PX
925.93 +0.3%
OTHER NEWS
Ukrainian President Confident U.S. Ties Will Continue
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday he hopes to
meet U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in Washington next month and
that he believes the incoming administration will continue to
support Ukraine.
Write to Veronika Gulyas at veronika.gulyas@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 18, 2017 23:14 ET (04:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.