Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 16 March 2017
- Gold seen higher after this Fed hike
- Next up from the BOJ - Kuroda's press conference at 0630GMT
- BOJ announce: No change in policy (as expected)
- Various comments out of Japan, but still waiting on the BOJ
- Australia - NAB raises variable rates for home loans, investor loans
- People's Bank of China raises rates for OMOs, MLF
- USD/JPY & EUR/JPY orders
- EUR/USD orderboard
- AUD and NZD orderboards
- Australian February job report - responses
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.8862 (vs. yesterday at 6.9115)
- Meanwhile, US President Trump speaking (remarks on latest travel ban block)
- Australia (February) jobs report. Employment Change: -6.4K (expected +16.0K)
- Dutch election: Wilders declares Rutte the winner
- Today's 2nd big data point due at the bottom of the hour - Aussie jobs report
- Australia data - Consumer inflation expectations (March): 4.0% (prior 4.1%)
- More FX intervention warnings from South Korea
- Question for ForexLive people: Is it safe to put a blanket over the microwave?
- Dutch election latest - Rutte 'clear leader' (ANP)
- HKMA announces a base rate hike (by 25 bps)
- Post-FOMC Reuters poll of primary dealers: Most see 2 more hikes this year
- Japan - Did you hear the one about the first rate increase in 27 years?
- Trade ideas thread for Asia timezone Super Thursday! 16 March 2017
- NZ Q4 GDP 0.4% q/q (vs. expected 0.7%)
- Economic data due from Asia today - NZ GDP, Australia jobs, Japan BOJ
- Poll: What time is the Bank of Japan announcement?
- ICYMI: ForexLive Americas FX news wrap: Dollar dumped despite rate hike
It was a busy session for data and news here in Asia ... from the top:
New Zealand Q4 GDP showed a big miss on expectations and a big fall from the (revised lower) Q3 results. NZD dropped toward 0.7000 upon the data release and then ticked back near its overnight (post-FOMC announcement) high before dribbling back toward its session low.
The Australian dollar was fairly flat for the session leading up to the release of the February employment report. The report was a disappointment, with a headline fall (6.4K) in jobs (against an expected gain of 16K) and a higher unemployment rate. The u/e rate is up 0.3% in 4 months and at a 13-month high. 'Trend' data paints a not quite so bad a picture, but this was not a good report; confirming (again) the weak trend for employment growth.
The PBOC bumped rates a little higher (10bps) for 7-,14-, and 28-day reverse repos today, along with rates for the medium-term lending facility. Metal/commodity futures in China dropped away on the news (there has been some speculative buying ...), but stock markets are higher. Earlier the bank had revalued the CNY higher (against the USD, which had weakened overnight despite the FOMC fed funds hike). The Bank had previously nudged rates higher only 6 weeks ago. Today it said the hikes were not a change in policy but that "flexibility" in rates is helpful to encourage deleveraging & risk prevention.
Next up we had the Bank of Japan (by 'next up' I mean 'eventually'!), with an as expected announcement to leave its policy unchanged:
- Maintains short-term interest rate target at -0.1 pct
- Maintains 10-year jgb yield target around zero pct
- The Bank also left its assessment of the economy unchanged.
Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda is still to give his post-announcement press conference, that's due at 0630GMT, stay tuned (or go to bed, you can probably guess what gets my vote ;-) )
USD/JPY had a range-bound session ahead of, through, and after the Bank of Japan announcement. It had fallen overnight (FOMC-related) but tracked more or less sideways on the session here, 113.16/55 pretty much covering it.
EUR/USD ticked a little higher, Dutch election news (a win for the current PM, but plenty (read weeks, months) of wrangling to form a coalition is likely still to come) giving it a final little boost to a new high (compared with overnight) but after getting above 1.0740 it has dribbled back to around 1.0720 and thereabouts. The CHF against USD followed a similar pattern and is net little changed on the session also.
Cable, too, not a lot in it, a few points lower on the day.
AUD and NZD are covered (above), but Both are near session lows as I finish this report.
Gold is on its session high, oil not far off its.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei -0.05%
- Shanghai +0.66%
- HK +1.12%
- ASX -0.10%
Still to come: Next up from the BOJ - Kuroda's press conference at 0630GMT
