Forex news for Asia trading for Thursday 25 March 2021
- BoE Chief Economist earlier said he expected a "rip roaring" economic recovery ... based on "chatting" to people
- Reuters says the US SEC is opening an enquiry into SPACs, "blank check IPO frenzy"
- Rumour that China's 'National Team' said to be intervening to buy stocks
- BOJ Gov Kuroda says no plans to end ETF buying, or sell any BOJ Holdings
- EUR softness - slow vaccine rollout, renewed virus wave, renewed restrictions, US outpacing cited once again
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.5282 (vs. yesterday at 6.5228)
- AstraZeneca Phase 3 trial of its vaccine in US confirmed efficacy updated
- One estimate says it may take 6 days to free the ship stuck in the Suez canal
- Bank of Korea says it'll extend special loans to small and medium size firms by 6 months
- US to sanction Myanmar military-owned conglomerates MEC & MEHL
- Oil trader pleads guilty to manipulating prices
- ICYMI - China, Russia vulnerable to dollar risks as sanctions from West multiply
- Fed’s Evans says cryptocurrencies are too volatile to be a store of value
- ANZ expect out of cycle mortgage rate hikes in Australia from H2 2021
- More from Fed's Evans - says its extraordinary 10 yr rates are as low as they are given all the fiscal spending
- Fed Evans expects the US unemployment rate to drop to 4.5% in 2021
- Japan's Defence Minister says North Korea fired two ballistic missiles
- North Korea may have fired a ballistic missile
- Kicking Chinese stocks off US exchanges edges closer as SEC starts action
- US stimulus $$$ sent out so far totals $325bn
- BoE's Haldane says economic recovery will come quickly
- Fed's Daly says the US economy still needs support, economy a long way from goals
- Here's a forecast for S&P500 at 4,100 as a 'base case' this year (4,600 in most bullish scenario)
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 25 March 2021
Weaker currencies againt the USD persisted in ealry Asian trade but we have had some turnaround after the early soft trading with bounces from the lows for EUR/USD, AUD/USD, NZD/USD and cable. USD/CAD has slid from its early high. The yen lost some ground on the gain in risk currencies. 'Risk' benefited from a slightly improved (or at least less bad) tone in Chinese equities (more on this to come below).
Oil dropped away from its Europe/US timezone highs. There has been no progress reported on freeing the ship blocking the Suez Canal but the fears for oil supply dissipated as concern over demand dipping on Europe (slow vaccine roll-out, rise in new virus cases largely driven by the U.K. strain, tightening of restrictions) overtook. Obviously the Suez developments are still ongoing.
Equities in China weakened at the open but the worst of the declines were reversed (HK and Shanghai are still in the negative just by not as much as earlier) with some reports the 'National Team' in China were in supporting stocks (unconfirmed). There was enthusiasm over a point made on the newswires that US stimulus was good for Chinese exporters (ie supportive of Chinese industry) although the enthusiasm did seem to come a few hours after the report was first published and tracked the bounce of Chinese stocks from their earlier lows.
Japan's Nikkei +0.84%
China's Shanghai Composite -0.1%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.4%
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 +0.7%
Bitcoin has not managed to sustain any bounce during the session, close to its session lows as I post circa $52K
EUR/USD bounced from a 3 month low:
