Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 23 February 2017
- Goldman Sachs says global crude stocks likely to keep falling
- Hedge fund CEO Jeffrey Ubben says capital market valuations overextended
- French election poll - Le Pen gets a bigger 1st round lead ... but ...
- Yo, heads up you Brexit people: Australia, Israel agree to boost trade, investment links
- China's deputy housing minister says undertaking work for property tax
- Australia Q4 GDP next week - early expectations
- Australia Q4 capex responses: 2016/17 marked higher, 2017/18 lacklustre
- Economic data due from the US today, and plenty of Federal Reserve speakers
- PBOC sets USD/CNY central rate at 6.8695 (vs. yesterday at 6.8830)
- BOJ's Kiuchi: Shouldn't persist in strengthening monetary easing
- Australian Q4 capex data - analyst responses
- Australia Q4 2016 capex misses estimates, AUD lower
- Australia - Q4 Capex (Private Capital Expenditure) Headline -2.1% q/q (vs. expected -0.5%)
- AUD traders - heads up for capex data due at the bottom of the hour
- Japan Services PPI for January: +0.5% y/y (expected +0.5%)
- Gold price forecasts from Goldman Sachs (also oil forecasts)
- "German economy is on a solid growth path" - German finance ministry
- Here's the WSJ interview with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
- Exxon removes 3.3 bn barrels of untapped crude from proved reserves
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 23 February 2017
- Hail the all-new FOMC blackout period (now even longer!), and "fan" charts
- OIL - Private inventory data shows surprise draw in headline crude stock
- US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin: Strong USD a reflection of confidence in economy
- Economic data due from Asia today (Aussie Q4 capex & a BOJ speaker)
- US stocks end the day mixed. S&P/Nasdaq down. Dow up.
- And, ICYMI: ForexLive Americas FX news wrap: Canadian retail sales disappoint, Fed Minutes too
News and data flow was light again in Asia today, with the focus on the Australian Q4 Private Capital Expenditure survey; aka the 'capex' survey, though if you stick an "r" in the right spot you'll be close to the result. It was a big miss on expectations (again), a further slump in mining capex (no surprise there) but at least a pickup in manufacturing and 'other' capex intentions to provide something positive.
Also on the positive side of the ledger, this time for the Q4 GDP result (due Wednesday 1 March from Australia, 0030GMT ... don't miss it!) the 'equipment' capex , which is fed into the GDP calculations came in at a plus (+0.4% q/q) after a big slump in Q3.
The data etc. is in the bullets above, but all in one place;
- Australia Q4 GDP next week - early expectations
- Australia Q4 capex responses: 2016/17 marked higher, 2017/18 lacklustre
- Australian Q4 capex data - analyst responses
- Australia Q4 2016 capex misses estimates, AUD lower
- Australia - Q4 Capex (Private Capital Expenditure) Headline -2.1% q/q (vs. expected -0.5%)
Apart from the Aussie data the focus remained on disssecting the FOMC minutes (released overnight in US time). Most currencies stayed within ranges established over the release of the minutes. Most, but not all ...
An interview in the Wall Street Journal with US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, in which he said (amongst other things, but this was the headline):
- Strong USD a reflection of confidence in economy
- (the full interview is available from here: Here's the WSJ interview with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin)
... saw the USD gain a few points nearly across the board in the Sydney morning. Thin liquidity at this time of the day means it often doesn't take much to move currencies at least a few points, and this is what we got.
After early gains, though, the USD gave some ground back. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
USD/JPY ticked a little higher early on the Mnuchin headline, but fell well short of testing 113.50 before dipping back a few points (the Nikkei weak at the opening also). EUR and CHF also lost some points early to the USD but both have managed to recover somewhat and are little changed. Cable followed a smiilar pattern, GBP down early against the USD and then moving back to be barely changed.
The Australian dollar lost early too, but the capex result saw the losses continue.The moves were not large though, from circa 0.7665/70 the AUD/USD has managed to peg back some of its losses.
But the star of the day was the NZD/USD, its popped its FOMC high and is above 0.7200 as I update.
Gold is barely changed on the day, oil popped early on the private inventory data (a surprise draw) and has maintained its gain (and added to it).
We had comments today from BOJ board member Kiuchi. He is a persistent dissenter at the meetings and his comments reflect his differing views from pretty much the rest of the board.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei -0.24%
- Shanghai -0.39%
- HK -0.48%
- ASX -0.24%
Still to come:
- Economic data due from the US today, and plenty of Federal Reserve speakers
