Fed Chair Jerome Powell will appear alongside Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin before the Senate Banking Committee to give their quarterly CARES Act report to Congress on Thursday.
Key economic releases for the week
Wednesday, 23 Sep: SG CPI YoY
Friday, 25 Sep: SG Industrial Production YoY
Last week summary
On Monday, the new senior 12y SGD issue by CapitaLand Treasury Limited at 2.9% saw strong order books in excess of S$1.3bn for issue size of S$800mn despite its relatively low coupon rate.
Asia new issue pipeline remains increasingly active with 5 new mandates outstanding from the ones announced in the last two weeks. Issuance in Asia’s primary dollar bond market excluding Japan has jumped above $13b this week, from $7.7b last week, after lender ICBC and ChemChina each priced in excess of $2b of debt. Sales for the month have already exceeded $29b and last September’s record tally of $32.3b for the period is in sight.
FOMC rate decision: maintained at 0.25% while the Fed signaled historical low rates through till 2023. The Summary of Economic Projections reflects a stronger economic performance and lower joblessness since guidance was last published in June. The 2020 median GDP projection is now -3.7% (vs. -6.5% prior), core inflation is seen at 1.5% (vs. 1.0% prior) and the unemployment rate is expected to be 7.6% (vs. 9.3% prior).
