Week over week the FX market had ample liquidity available to satisfy the requests for end-users and institutional clients.

There was no B-FXITT intervention from the Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) for this week.

However, there was a recent mass selling of USD from a major market player which contributed to the marginal depreciation of JMD against USD by 0.24% to close the week selling at J$155.04.

As we near the upcoming Christmas holiday season, the demand for USD should continue to rise to buy more imported goods.

For the week starting November 25, 2022, we expect the JMD demand to weaken in favour of USD in anticipation of seasonal increase consumer spending.

This week was short for the bond market with low activity mainly attributable to the largest market players being on holiday for the latter part of the week.

As such, bond prices remained relatively flat coming off a rally caused by a miss in CPI expectation in the weeks prior.

However, the longer dated JAMAN45 bond prices saw increases of 2.51% while the 25’s and 36 on average remained stable with marginal declines week over week.

To close the month of November 2022, another short week in which we expect the bond market to continue a stable trend in either direction.

The Fed Chair speech on Wednesday November 30th and U.S. unemployment rate data on Friday December 2nd could move the market to the upside if the signals are less pessimistic than the consensus estimate.

The JMD market saw a marginal amount of tightening, however remained largely liquid. This was evident in the slight decline in the number of brokers doing placements versus borrowing.

Due to this, short term (<30days) overnight rates trended up to a maximum of 8.50% when compared to the prior week of 8.00%.

While the longer tenure rates edged up by approximately 25bps between 8.50%-8.75%.

The BOJ 7% Fixed Rate 30-day Certificate of Deposit auction for the allocation of J$15B was oversubscribed, with total value received amounting to J$22.5B. The average yield for successful bids was 8.47%, with highest submitted bid rate of 11.98% and lowest of 7.50%

Week over week, USD rates remained relatively flat with sufficient liquidity as the recent market behaviour lags.

For the week starting November 25, 2022, the expectation is that JMD liquidity will remain moderate and USD supply may be dried up due to increase consumer spending following holiday deals.