Forex news for Asia trading for Monday 23 November 2020
- US close to blackballing 89 Chinee aerospace, tech companies (citing ties to China military)
- New Zealand has offered coronavirus help to the US
- ECB Chief Economist Lane spoke over the weekend -recap (& full transcript)
- ANZ on the CFTC currency positioning data - USD "expected to remain broadly weak"
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.5719 (vs. Friday at 6.5786)
- FX option expiries for Monday November 23 at the 10am NY cut
- US President-elect Biden to name Tony Blinken as secretary of state
- Monetary Authority of Singapore official says monetary policy remains appropriate
- Singapore data: Q3 GDP +9.2% q/q, still down y/y
- South Korea November exports posting solid gains
- US coronavirus - LA County has banned all in-person dining at restaurants
- The 'travel bubble' between Hong Kong And Singapore has been delayed
- Forecasts for NZ dollar lifted
- BoA on the factors needed for gold to trade higher (& forecasts for XAU & XAG)
- Japan gets an early jump on the Thanksgiving holiday - markets closed today
- Spain will begin a comprehensive coronavirus vaccination programme in January
- Australia preliminary PMIs for November. Manufacturing 56.1 (prior 54.2) & Services 54.9 (prior 53.7)
- Trade ideas thread - Monday 23 November 2020
- New Zealand Retail Sales for Q3 big beat: +28.0% (expected 19.0%)
- Weekend report - EU 'thinks Brexit deal 95% agreed' but anxiety remains
- ECB's Lane says current lockdown will lead to economic activity drop, but not as severe as earlier in the year
- Weekend news: US to add four more Chinese firms to Pentagon blacklist
- Here is what’s on the economic calendar in Asia today (not a lot)
- Australian Treasurer Frydenberg to expand business tax breaks
- UK media report the country could approve Pfizer coronavirus vaccine this week
- Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices - 23 November 2020
Weekend:
- The battle for working-class votes will reverse the secular decline in inflation
- US FDA grants emergency use authorization to Regeneron COVID-19 treatment
- UK Times report on Brexit deal - “There’s increasing expectation of a deal”
- UK agree a post-Brexit trade deal with Canada
- Oil climbs for the third week in a row, nears the range-top
Coronavirus vaccine hopes picked up again over the weekend with various positive reports, a notable one being UK authorities may be set to approve the Pfizer vaccine this week and the NHS has been preparing for distribution beginning December 1 (see bullets above). Alongside the vaccine report was news also that the US FDA has approved Regeneron for use as a treatment (an Emergency Use Authorisation). Regeneron was used in caring for Trump when he was ill with the infection.
After a slow beginning to Monday in FX and in US Globex trade, perhaps due to a Japanese holiday delaying the Monday pick-up in volume and liquidity, the USD soon began to drop away and US equity futures climb.
NZD/USD has been a stat performer on the currency board, helped further upwards by Q3 retail sales data showing a stronger than expected rebound. Speaking of improving data, add South Korean exports and Singapore Q3 GDP both out today to the list,
Cable has also strengthend, GBP has been helped along by the better noises coming out of the UK re a potential trade deal with the EU. There is still work to do on the persistently difficult issues of fisheries, governance and competition rules though.
AUD, EUR, CAD ... all are better bid against the USD here in Asia for the session. USD/JPY is down about 10 points from its earlier high. As mentioned it was a holiday in Japan today so yen was not where the action was. USD/CHF is on it session lows as I post.
