Forex news for Asia trading Monday 20 February 2017
Monday:
- Japan January trade deficit - recap
- Nomura's 2 themes at play in the euro (looking for short-term outperformance)
- Oil - Money managers (heart) OPEC
- Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester spoke today in Singapore - recap
- BofA Merrill Lynch on the yuan - outlook less precarious
- Fed's Mester: There is more realisation of global factors affecting the US
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.8743 (vs. Friday at 6.8456)
- Fed's Mester - no comments on rate outlook, says US economy on sound footing
- Bipartisan Congress support for declaring China a currency manipulator?
- USD/JPY & EUR/JPY orders
- AUD and NZD orderboards
- EUR/USD orderboard
- UK - EY ITEM Club say stronger growth to help beat 2016/17 budget target
- Reuters - EU Commission to warn Italy on Wednesday over rising debt
- Japanese Lifers Cautiously Increase Exposure to Foreign Bonds - Reuters
- UK February house prices +2.3% y/y (vs. expected +2.8%)
- Japan Trade balance (January): Y -1086.9bn (vs. expected Y -625.9bn)
- Japan Reuters poll - firms becoming more positive about capex
- Weekend: US food company Kraft Heinz withdrew its proposal for merger with Unilever
- Economic data due from Asia today - Japan trade balance (and a Fed speaker)
- Trade ideas thread - Monday 20 February 2017
- New Zealand Q4 PPIs rise
- New Zealand services PMI (January): 59.5 (prior 58.4)
- US administration considering changes to trade deficit calculations
- MOAR oil! Iraq's oil reserves have increased to 153 billion barrels
- Up and down markets, what they imply, and how to best trade them
- Germn finmin Schaeuble denies 'Grexit' threat, says Greece on right path
- Monday morning FX - 20 February 2017 - foreign exchange prices, early indications
Weekend:
- The House of Lords begins its two day debate on the "Brexit Bill" tomorrow (Monday)
- Brexit is "irrevocable" once Article 50 is triggered
- Regling says Greece may need less ESM money than originally planned
- Merkel suggests euro is too low for Germany (+ ECB comments)
- Germany's foreign minister Gabriel on Brexit: don't treat Britain overly harshly
- OIL - Iran expects to raise oil production output (and, they've found MOAR oil reserves)
- German Chancellor Angela Merkel to meet with IMF & EU this week on Greece
- Weekend politics - Europe, Russia, Pence, NATO ...
- China will suspend all imports of coal from North Korea until end year
A low-key beginning to the week with a light news and data flow over the weekend and on the Asian Monday, perhaps kept subdued by the upcoming US holiday Monday.
Japanese trade balance results for January was the focus for data flow, see bullets above but a few points:
- auto exports fell, as part of exports that missed expectations big time
- The cost of energy import costs increased, with imports as a whole well higher than expected
We also had comments from Dr. Loretta Mester, President & CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. She was speaking in Singapore today:
- Fed's Mester - no comments on rate outlook, says US economy on sound footing
- Fed's Mester: There is more realisation of global factors affecting the US
- Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester spoke today in Singapore - recap
On currencies it was lacklustre:
- EUR/USD ticked a few points higher in the Tokyo morning(tested over 1.0630) before drifting back towards 1.06 and being little changed on the session
- USD/JPY gained a few points to above 113.10 and its little changed from there as I update (down a tad from the session high)
- Cable followed a similar pattern to EUR/USD, but it's a few points to the better as a whole for the session. USD/CHF is also slightly higher (but not much in it)
- AUD/USD is barely changed after a small range, NZD/USD is a few points weaker on the session.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +0.11%
- Shanghai +0.79%
- HK +0.33%
- ASX -0.26%
Still to come ... a holiday in the US and Canada today:
- US holiday coming up Monday, markets closed
ICYMIAHBTTDOTW: (in case you missed it and had better things to do on the weekend):
- Forexlive Americas forex news wrap. Dollar ends mostly higher in quiet NA trade
And, finally ... Some terrible news from Sweden "last night". OK, it was a few years ago, but if we're gonna get fake news lets get some late news too ... Swedish house Mafia break up!:
