Forex news for Asia trading Monday 16 May 2016
Monday
- China - Bloomberg’s monthly GDP tracker slowed to 6.88% in April (from 7.11% in March)
- Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga: Not true PM Abe has decided to delay sales tax hike
- Goldman Sachs lowers its oil price forecasts
- Central banker head says rich country CBs, govmts running out of ammo, but can't admit it
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.5343 (vs. Friday 6.5246)
- Japan PM Abe: There is need for fiscal stimulus steps to boost demand
- PBOC yuan basket - first rise for RMB for 7 weeks
- "Never before has the Bank of Japan done so much to achieve so little"
- Japan - PPI (April): -0.3% m/m (expected +0.2%) & -4.2% y/y (expected -3.7%)
- German fin min Schaeuble: Japan hasn't asked Germany to boost fiscal stimulus
- Confederation of British Industry cut economic growth forecasts (cites you-know-what)
- AUD and NZD orderboards
- WSJ reports 'Libyan Oil Blockade Partially Lifted'. (ps. don't get too excited on exports)
- NZ Services PMI for April: 57.7 (prior 54.8)
- Japan press says Abe is to put off the sales tax hike
- Trade ideas thread to kick off the new week - Monday 16 May 2016
- Friday and weekend China data ... all a wee bit slowish
- Monday FX market - early forex rates guide
Weekend
- Trump says that Brexit would make no difference to a bilateral US/UK trade deal
- BOE's Carney says he was right to warn about potential recession if UK votes for Brexit
- Friday was a disappointment for the US dollar bulls
- Just. One. Trade.
- Dragasakis says debt relief deal should help Greece access debt markets "within a year"
- China fixed investment April yy +10.5% vs +10.9% exp
- China retail sales April yy +10.1% vs +10.5% exp
- China industrial production April yy +6.0% vs +6.5% exp
- DBRS affirms Australia at AAA
Australian 10-year government bonds hit an all-time low today, and in early Monday trade AUD/USD hit a 10-week low. The early 'gap' down for the currency came after weekend data from China showed retail sales, industrial production and fixed-asset investment all missing economists' estimates (as did late Friday data too). In later news from China, the People's Bank of China dropped the yuan (CNY) to its lowest level (against the USD) since March 3. The Shanghai Composite, though, managed to drop all by itself before staging a come back to be little changed as of updating.
Meanwhile, from its very early Monday 10-week low the AUD/USD managed to pick itself up, tracking back to just short of 0.7300. NZD/USD was not quite so strong, retesting early lows mid-NZ afternoon before recovering to little changed on the session.
Weekend reports that Japanese Prime Minister Abe was soon to announce a postponement of the planned April 2017 sales tax hike were scotched on Monday by chief cabinet secretary Suga. Back to the will-they-won't-they ...
USD/JPY ticked out a modest gain on the session, up from early lows around 108.50 toward (but not quite reaching as of writing) 109.00. EUR/USD is little changed on the session, USD/CHF is a few pips higher, as is GBP/USD (after a small gap lower in the very early hours).
Gold was a gainer today, up +$5 at one stage, and oil continued its gains also.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +1.2%
- Shanghai +0.23%
- HK +1.23%
- ASX +0.65%
Still to come: "Hello, Uber? Car for Mr. Kuroda please" - Kuroda in Japan parliament today (due at 6.20am GMT)
More: China admits overcapacity not yet falling in bloated steel sector
