Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 22 November 2016
Japan earthquake:
- Japan earthquake intensity revised: M7.4, depth 25 km.
- Japan earthquake update - TEPCo said to be planning restart of cooling system
- Japan earthquake update - nuclear plant cooling concerns
- Japan earthquake update - tsunami advisory still in effect - multiple aftershocks
- Japan earthquake - more - tsunami alert, nuclear plants said to be OK
- Japan earthquake - No abnormality found at Onagawa nuclear power plant
- Tokyo earthquake reports - Japan prelim magnitude 7.3 - off Fukushima
Elsewhere:
- RenTec's Medallion Fund almost never loses money. Biggest drawdown was 1/2%!
- Kahneman on the biggest danger of hindsight
- Fitch on China: Affirms China at 'A+', outlook stable
- More from Kuroda: Think conditions have clearly improved since QQE
- Moody's on China - corporate revenue is stabilizing, leverage to remain elevated
- ANZ says stay bearish EUR/USD, but reasons to be cautious on targets
- BOJ official says JGB operation was successful
- People’s Bank of China sets yuan reference rate at 6.8779 (vs. yesterday at 6.8985)
- Bank of Japan's Kuroda: Japanese economy is in a gradual recovery trend
- New Zealand earthquake: M6.3 off north island
- Data catch up - NZ migration, Japan wages
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 22 November 2016
- BOJ Governor Kuroda in Japan parliament today - from 10am local time
- China researcher says PBOC should abandon yuan FX intervention
- Australia data - weekly consumer sentiment 115.5 (prior 118.2)
- Fed's Fischer: Infrastructure investments could lift US productivity
A big earthquake off the east coast of Japan seconds before 6am (Tokyo time) stirred fears early. The earthquake was rated as a (revised higher) Magnitude 7.4, with tsunami alerts issued. USD/JPY fell away a little after the news hit, eventually to a low under 101.30. In the hours following the earthquake there were tsunami events (highest recorded was 140cms), but as I update many hours later there have been reports of minimal damage. Cooling systems at a reactor were offline for a period of time but were back within an hour or so. Along with pretty much no reports of damage there have been no (I haven't heard of any) reports of injuries. Its hard to imagine a better result from a Japanese earthquake, what a relief.
USD/JPY has since regained some ground, back up briefly above 110.80 and its around that level as I update.
EUR/USD has gained on the session, up towards 1.0650, while USD/CHF came down to under 1.0070 before ticking back 20 points higher as I update. USD weakness saw GBP/USD rally to its overnight (NY time) high and then only briefly above 1.2510 before coming back just a few points. Its around 1.2490 as I update.
AUD/USD and NZD/USD were good performers today after their stabilisations during London/US time Monday. AUD/USD ticked fairly steadily higher, not quite managing to make it to 0.7400 as of writing. NZD/USD popped above 0.7080 and it's a few points just under there now. AUD/NZD selling abated somewhat today.
Gold and oil were both higher on the session here.
The People's Bank of China ended the 12 consecutive days of a weaker CNY mid rate fix against the USD, with a slight strengthening of the CNY today (glad I warned of this in yesterday's wrap ... something smelled a little off yesterday ;-) ).
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +0.33%
- Shanghai +0.73%
- HK +1.29%
- ASX +1.24%
Still to come:
- 0630GMT - Reserve Bank of New Zealand's Deputy Governor Geoff Bascand will deliver a speech to Australian National University in Canberra on Tuesday 22 November. The speech is titled 'Changing Dynamics in Household Behaviour.' The speech text and a news release will be published at 7.30pm NZDT.
- 0905GMT - Reserve Bank of Australia Assistant Governor (Economic) Christopher Kent speech, entitled Australia's Economic Transition - State by State, at the Australian Business Economists (ABE) Conference Dinner, Sydney
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