Fischer Sees Powell's End, Fed to Push BOJ, U.S. Record: Eco Day

(Bloomberg) -- Welcome to Monday, Asia. Here’s the latest news and analysis from Bloomberg Economics to help get your day started:

• Former Fed No. 2 Stanley Fischer predicted President Donald Trump won’t renominate Jerome Powell for another term if re-elected, undercutting Fed autonomy. Powell’s frequent assurance that sustaining the U.S. expansion is the Fed’s “overarching’’ goal is opening the door to potentially aggressive interest-rate cuts
• Economists now see the BOJ expanding stimulus as its next move, with a strengthening yen from Fed rate cuts seen as a key factor. Japanese inflation data looks set to push bond yields even lower and increase scrutiny of central bank Governor Haruhiko Kuroda
• About to break records for the longest expansion, the U.S. economy sure looks like an asset for a president gearing up to seek re-election. As the U.S. nears the record in July, the conversation is increasingly turning to when it will all end
• Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross downplayed the prospect of a deal emerging from a possible meeting between Trump and President Xi Jinping at the G-20 summit. Vice President Mike Pence was set to deliver a speech criticizing China’s human rights record -- until Trump stepped in
• The boast by People’s Bank of China Governor Yi Gang that he has “tremendous room” to adjust policy could soon be tested. The most disconcerting aspect of China’s weak activity data in May is the across-the-board deceleration in investment, writes Chang Shu
• Global interest rates have peaked. That’s the conclusion investors are reaching as the Fed and its counterparts in Japan and the euro area convene for pivotal meetings
• The ECB’s vice president said policy makers will add stimulus if inflation expectations become deanchored, though they don’t believe that’s the case yet. A sense of unfinished business looms over ECB officials at the final academic summer retreat of Mario Draghi’s reign
• House prices in London continued to drop, though the downturn is showing some signs of leveling off, according to Rightmove
• The Bank of Thailand’s monetary policy is data dependent with an eye on financial stability as well as the tough export outlook, according to an official who helps to decide the benchmark rate

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Chris Bourke

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