Forex news for Asia trading on Monday 17 May 2021
CRYPTO news/headlines:- China Securities Journal (opinion piece) calls for tighter regulation of cryptocurrency trading
- There is a new crypto coin called F***Elon coin
- More weekend tweets from Musk, what makes him "want to go all in on Doge"
- Has Tesla's Elon Musk declared war on Bitcoin?
- Bitcoin continues to fall, fingers point at Musk tweet (implying TSLA has BTC to sell, or has sold)
- Bitcoin drop under $46K on Musk tweet - implies is selling or has sold Tesla BTC
Other:
- ANZ forecast the RBNZ to start hiking the OCR in August 2022
- China stats dept comments on the April 'activity data' - still wary on recovery
- China April Industrial Production 9.8% y/y (expected +10%) & Retail Sales 17.7% y/y (expected +25.0%)
- China New Home Sales in April +0.48% m/m (prev. was 0.41%)
- Taiwan hinting at intervention - Premier says to prepare 'stabilisation'
- Gold giving BTC a sly grin ... highest since early February
- People's Bank of China issue a 1 year MLF
- Taiwan's stock market selling off again after a further spread of COVID-19 infections, tighter restrictions
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4307 (vs. Friday at 6.4525)
- Singapore April NODX +6% y/y, -8.8% m/m
- For the MSFT traders - gossip mags going all-in on Bill Gates now
- Japan PPI data for April +3.6% y/y (vs. expected 3.1%)
- Australia news: 1. Crown says Blackstone bid undervalues company. 2. Fuel refineries secured.
- More UK data - small manufacturing firms see recovery ahead
- UK labour market survey finds notable worker shortages
- UK Rightmove April house price indicator +1.8% m/m (prior +2.1%)
- New Zealand services PMI for April 61.2 (prior 52.4)
- Forecast - China‘s ban on Australian coal seen extending into 2022
- Trade ideas thread - Monday 17 May 2021
- Regulator launches investigation into market manipulation, illegal activities
- Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices - 17 May 2021
- Re Coinbase to list DOGE - CEO expects "millions" of crypto assets to be created
There was another sharp decline for Bitcoin with further tweeting from Elon Musk and the propsect of tighter regulation from China weighing (see bullets above). It wasn;t opnly BTC lower, other coins lost ground also.
Across major forex it was a mixed bag. EUR/JPY popped to above 132.90, its highest since 2018, before dipping back under. USD/JPY tested 109.50 before similarly dipping back just a little. Yen saw some offers (i.e. yen crosses bid) heading into the Tokyo fix Monday but once that was complete was when it came back. EUR, AUD, NZD and CAD have all net lost ground against the USD on the session here. Gold hit its highest since early February, trading above $1852. A kick up in concern over the virus combined with stable/lower yields cited as prompts for the gold rise.
Taiwan's stock market fell heavily again early, the country reported a surge in cases over the weekend and has responded with tighter restrictions. Singapore, too, is tightening its coronavirus response. Taiwan's Premier has told relevant government departments to prepare to stabilise equity and FX markets in the country.
From China today we had April 'activity data' (see bullets above) with a moderation of growth in industrial production and retail sales on the month. China house price growth hit an 8 month high.
Regional equities:
Japan's Nikkei -1.2%, Topix -0.4%
China's Shanghai Composite +1%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng +0.5%
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 +0.3%
BTC/USD had a soft weekend:
