USD: Fed’s Brainard in the limelight today – RBC CM

Elsa Lignos, Senior Currency Strategist at RBC Capital Markets, suggests that Brainard’s speech today took on undue importance, as the timing of a speech by the Fed’s most noted dove, just ahead of the FOMC blackout period, is too much of a coincidence for some.

Key Quotes

“Rosengren’s very upbeat remarks on  Friday (from another well-known dove) certainly set the stage for something similar from Brainard today although Tarullo was less convinced of the need for tightening.

Datawise, retail sales are the highlight in a busy week for US economic data. The headline read is likely to be held down by softening vehicle sales, but our economists look for better internals, consistent with our Q3 real consumer spending profile of 3% annualized growth.”