Forex news for Asia trading on Tuesday 20 July 2021
- New Jersey Attorney General preparing an order against bitcoin platform BlockFi
- PBOC held 1 and 5 year rates steady today for the 15th month in a row
- USD26bn opioid settlement expected this week (WSJ report)
- RBA July policy meeting minutes - says again expects no rate hike before 2024
- China loan rates: 1-year 3.85% (as expected) & 5-year 4.65% (as expected)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.4855 (vs. yesterday at 6.4700)
- Australia coronavirus - Sydney new daily case numbers decline for the third day in a row
- Japan inflation data recap - core CPI hits 15-month high
- Magellan (fund manager) founder says crypto going to zero.
- Canada will open its border with the US from August 9 (for the fully vaccinated)
- Japan National Headline CPI for June 2021: 0.2% y/y (vs. expected -0.1%)
- Japan's second-largest island will seek near-emergency coronavirus measures
- Australia coronavirus - Commonwealth Bank CEO says more lockdowns coming
- Australia coronavirus - Sydney and Victorian lockdowns will cost the country $10bn
- ICYMI - The US has formally accused China hackers for cyberattack on Microsoft
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 20 July 2021
- The Plunge Protection Team spent the day discussing stablecoins.
The People's Bank of China set its one- and five-year Loan Prime Rates at unchanged rates for the 15th straight month, in line with the consensus expectation (although there were some forecasts of a 5bp cut to the 1 year rate). As I post the offshore yuan is around its highest for the day (USD/CNY lows) in a small range (for CNH trade).
On the news front it was a light day. In Australia, coronavirus lockdowns news accelerated, the city of Melbourne (and state Victoria) lockdown was extended for another 7 days and the state of South Australia will have a 7-day lockdown from this evening (local time). There was a slight decline in new case numbers from New South Wales state (capital city is Australia's largest, Sydney).
While on Australia, the Reserve Bank of Australia July meeting minutes were published, these are a little stale given the deteriorating health news since the meeting back on July 6. Indeed, one of Australia's 'big four' banks, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, now expect that, given this deterioration and what it means for the economy, the RBA will reverse its (July meeting) QE bond-buying taper decision scheduled for implementation in mid-September if Sydney and/or Victoria are still in lockdown at the time of the August Board meeting (on the 3rd, which is only a couple of weeks away). AUD/USD and NZD/USD traded a few points up from their earlier lows and as I post are more or less net unchanged on the session.
Elsewhere across major FX it was a session of tight ranges and little net change.
ES futures on Globex saw a bit of a bounce after the sharp sell-off Monday US time.
As I post BTC/USD is heading closer to the nice big fat round number of $30,000:
