Top Headlines

Sterling Could hit $1.21 in Hung Parliament, Currency Strategist Says – CNBC
Sterling could see further sharp falls as the full results of the General Election show a hung parliament and no clear winner from Thursday’s vote, according to one currency strategist.

Macron’s Party Set for Huge French Parliamentary Majority – Reuters
President Emmanuel Macron’s fledgling party is set to trounce France’s traditional main parties in a parliamentary election and secure a huge majority to push through his pro-business reforms, projections after the first round showed on Sunday.

China Holds Firm to Its $5 Trillion Anchor as Fed, ECB Seek Exit – Bloomberg
Investors who fret about when and how global central banks will run down their crisis-era balance sheets can be relaxed about the biggest of them all — China’s.

Poor Inflation Readings Unlikely to Deter Federal Reserve – Financial Times (subscription)
Central bank widely expected to pull trigger on second rate increase this year

Qatar Could Defend Currency for Years, Its Balance Sheet Shows – Reuters
Qatar could defend its currency for years in the face of economic sanctions by other Gulf states, the country’s balance sheet suggests, so the riyal’s peg to the U.S. dollar is unlikely to fall victim to the region’s diplomatic crisis.

Currency Intervention is Back in Taiwan – Gulf Times
Taiwan’s market watchers say currency intervention is back on their radar.

Bond Market Doomsayers Sound Alarm as Margin of Safety Vanishes – Bloomberg
Look around the $14 trillion U.S. Treasury market, and you’d be hard-pressed to find anything to suggest investors are even remotely concerned about the possibility of a selloff.

Economists See a Strong Chance of Second Term for BOJ’s Kuroda – Bloomberg
Haruhiko Kuroda is considered a contender to get a second term as Bank of Japan governor by a majority of economists who offered an opinion on the matter ahead of a policy meeting this week.

Regulatory News

European Rules Reach Across Oceans to Overwhelm Firms in Asia – Bloomberg
Asian institutions have been overwhelmed by the breadth and scope of sweeping changes to Europe’s financial rules due in January, according to an industry group.

U.S. Lawmakers Ask IRS to Clarify Bitcoin Tax Guidelines – cryptocoinsnews
U.S. Congressmen Jared Polis, a Colorado Democrat, and David Schweikert, an Arizona Republican have written Internal Revenue Service Commissioner John Koskinen asking for additional guidance for reporting virtual currency transactions.

India Central Bank’s Freedom Gets Crucial Test – Bloomberg
Clashes between central banks and governments happen the world over.

Germany’s Merkel Says Digital World Needs Global Rules – Reuters
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday that the digital world needs regulations like those that exist for financial markets in the G20 and for trade under the World Trade Organization.

Japan’s Financial Watchdog to Ease Up On Banks – Nikkei Asian Review
Financial Services Agency says old oversight rules stifle lending and growth.

Company News

Thomson Reuters FX Volumes Down in May – Profit & Loss
The last platform to report average daily volume data, Thomson Reuters, has reported a small decline in activity in May.

Slow Adoption of Technology Hurts Asset Managers – Financial Times (subscription)
Money managers at risk of losing market share to digitally savvy disrupters.

When Currencies Fall, Export Growth Is Supposed to Follow—Until Now – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The U.K. economy is providing a live test of whether globalization has blunted the textbook effect of currency depreciation.

Despite Hopes, ‘Flash Boys’ Heroes Are Far From Reshaping U.S. Stock Market – Wall Street Journal (subscription)
IEX calls itself the best exchange for investors, citing data showing that trades on IEX have less impact on prices than at other exchanges

Why Digital Currency Exchange Coinbase Eyes $1B Valuation – CNBC News
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong recently declared that the digital currency industry was having “its Netscape moment.”  Like the pioneering browser that helped trigger the Internet revolution, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are on the verge of wide-scale adaptation, he argued.

Lower Charges Help BSE Overtake NSE in Currency Derivative Trading – The Economic Times
The BSE is the latest favourite with currency derivative traders, with daily trading volumes of hedging instruments on Asia’s first bourse rising past those on the competing and well-equipped National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Market Savvy

If Theresa May’s Huge Blunder Can’t Disrupt This Bull Market, What Can? – South China Morning Post
Global investors continue to climb a wall or worry, brushing off every risk and vulnerability that emerges and choosing to take a glass-half-full approach to any market development which bodes ill for sentiment.

The Euro-Zone is Living On Borrowed Time Bought by Mario Draghi’s ‘Super Stimulus’ – South China Morning Post
Economic and political tensions are still lurking under the surface, threatening to return with a vengeance.

Bitcoin May Be a Sensible Currency Bet – Stuff.co.nz
I don’t know what a blockchain is and I certainly do not know how they work. I know that they are the technology behind Bitcoin, that they are very clever and that they will have uses beyond digital currency.

C$ Options Pricing May Signal Bad News for Currency’s Bears – Reuters
The foreign exchange options market is showing much less risk of a sharp drop in the Canadian dollar than before last November’s U.S. election, which could spell bad news for speculators who have heavily shorted the underperforming currency.

Policy to Remain Accomodative for Now, May Need Adjusting: South Korea Central Bank Chief – Reuters
South Korea’s central bank chief said on Monday that monetary policy needs to stay accommodative to support the economy, but adjustments should be reviewed if growth remains strong.

Industry Events

MFA Forum 2017, 20 June, Chicago
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Forex Network Chicago 2017, 27-28 September, Chicago
FIA Futures & Options Expo 2017, 17-19 October, Chicago