Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 29 June 2016
- Asian arvo links: More BOJ easing, Fed's Powell, Loading up on Bad Chinese debt
- Some contradictory headlines on the wires ... re China rates ... go back to sleep
- Brexit - is the UK in for a constitutional crisis and what that would mean
- Westpac MNI China Consumer Sentiment Indicator up 1.5% to 115.9 in June
- PBOC sets yuan reference rate for today at 6.6324 (vs. yesterday at 6.6528)
- Australia data - HIA New Home Sales (May): -4.4% m/m (prior -4.7%)
- More on those English comments earlier
- NZ fin min English: Brexit may increase attractiveness of NZ dollar
- BOJ's Kuroda: Japan banks have no problem with FX funding
- More from Fed's Powell: We're a long way for having another financial crisis
- Japan PM Abe: Ready to mobilise all available policy measures
- Trade ideas thread - Hump Day Special!
- WSJ says long-term effect of Brexit is GBP loss of reserve status
- Fed's Powell: Brexit vote has shifted global risk further to downside
- Angela Merkel has advice for traders
- Clinton leads Trump by 11 points (Reuters poll)
- UK MPs lodge formal notice for 2nd referendum
- UK PM Cameron says this EU summit will be his last one
- RBNZ: House prices and dairy incomes pose financial stability risks
- Are you following us on Twitter?
- Oil - private inventory data show bigger draw than expected
- Oil traders - private inventory data due at 2030GMT
The return of a measure of stability continued during the Asian timezone today, with post-Brexit vote volatility becoming more subdued.
AUD and NZD traded higher, both popping above overnight highs. Comments from New Zealand finance minister, along with Stats NZ revising the Q1 unemployment rate lower (New Zealand's jobless rate for the March quarter this year has been revised down from 5.7 to 5.2 per cent) cited as positives for the NZD. The edging higher of the iron ore price has helped the AUD along. Curiously I saw social media commentary today along the lines of the return of speculative spirits in iron ore as the price goes higher. Maybe these people haven't heard of short selling and how that can be used speculatively also (bias-spotting spidey sense tingling today).
Another Japanese government/BOJ meeting in the Tokyo morning, and a subsequent issuing of statements and remarks. For the yen, though, the effect was not evident - USD/JPY fell, encouraged along by cited USD selling from Japanese exporters at the end of month (as they do).
EUR/USD and GBP/USD followed similar patterns through the session, both dropping away somewhat as Tokyo became active.
Crude traded higher on a larger than expected inventory drawdown (though we await reliable data during the US morning Wednesday); gold too gained during the session.
As an aside ... a headline hit the wires today that the PBOC had cut its benchmark interest rate. It was swiftly retracted, they hadn't (the error was made by the news agency). The PBOC normally makes interest rate moves after the local markets have officially closed, so the mistaken announcement only had a fleeting impact (before being withdrawn, of course), but amid expectations that the bank will cut at some stage it was a curious incident.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +1.80%
- Shanghai +0.48%
- HK +0.68%
- ASX +0.93%
