Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 20 December 2016
- Japan fin min Aso announcing FY2017 budget info
- BOJ - monetary policy held steady, upgrades economic assessment
- Italy Paves Way for a $21 Billion Rescue Plan for Ailing Banks
- Japan’s Cabinet Office upgrades GDP growth forecast
- PIMCO's outlook: "Into the Unknown" - Three global economic scenarios for 2017
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.9468 (vs. yesterday at 6.9312)
- Australia - RBA Minutes: Rising AUD could complicate economic transition
- IMF's Lagarde keeps job, escapes penalty after negligence conviction in France
- China Securities Journal says tight interbank liquidity expected to continue to Feb.
- Goldman Sachs' 2017 Investment Outlook: 3 key questions & 4 emerging transitions
- For the NZD traders' diary - dairy auction today (during London time)
- Australia data - spending measure expanding at fastest pace in 7½-years
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 20 December 2016
- NZ data - November food prices -0.1% m/m (prior -0.8%)
- PBOC's Zhou says he sees an economic turnaround in Q4
The Bank of Japan December meeting concluded today, with the bank upgrading its outlook for the economy but leaving policy unchanged:
- The short-term interest rate target unchanged at -0.1%
- The 10-year JGB yield target is left at around zero %
- Buying of JGBs is still targeted at an annual pace of 80tln yen
(The post is here if you'd like more: BOJ - monetary policy held steady, upgrades economic assessment). Note that earlier in the session the Japanese Cabinet Office announced it had upgraded its economic outlook for the country.
USD/JPY had traded a reasonable range prior to the announcement from the Bank, from lows around 117 up to circa 117.40 before dipping back to be around 117.10. In the minutes following the BOJ announcement USD/JPY scaled a new session high, falling short of hitting 117.60 before coming back around 117.30-odd as I update.
Apart from the BOJ there isn't a lot new to report.
We got minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia's December meeting published - with nothing much in the way of movement from the Australian dollar in response; it had little more than a 20-odd point range today. There is more detail on the minutes in the post: Australia - RBA Minutes: Rising AUD could complicate economic transition
NZD maintained a subdued range.
EUR/USD and USD/CHF, too, both traded narrow ranges, EUR and CHF both marginally up against the USD but we're talking only a few spreads in both cases.
Cable was little better range-wise, up from session lows around 1.2380 to above 1.2400 by a few points only.
The PBOC weakened the CNY against the USD a little and continued to pump liqudidiy into money markets through OMOs today.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +0.09%
- Shanghai -0.52%
- HK -0.25%
- ASX +0.58%
Still to come:
- For the NZD traders' diary - dairy auction today (during London time)
- 2017! .... Goldman Sachs' 2017 Investment Outlook: 3 key questions & 4 emerging transitions
- And ... PIMCO's outlook: "Into the Unknown" - Three global economic scenarios for 2017
