Forex news for Asia-Pacific trade on December 3, 2019:
- RBA holds key rate at 0.75%, as expected
- Full text of the statement from RBA Governor Lowe
- USTR proposes tariffs up to 100% on $2.4B of French imports to retaliate for digital tax
- Kuroda: Important to strike the right balance between growth and fiscal discipline
- Japan economy minister Nishimura: Economy is picking up but still at a low level
- UK BRC November like-for-like sales -4.9% vs -0.4% expected
- Japan November monetary base +3.3% y/y vs +3.1% prior
- Australia ANZ weekly Roy Morgan consumer confidence 108.1 vs 106.8 prior
- Trump continues his rant against the Fed; calls for rate cuts
Markets:
- Gold down $1.50 to $1461
- WTI crude oil up 18-cents to $56.14
- Australia ASX -2.3%
- AUD leads, JPY lags
The RBA was the marquee event coming into the day and it put a bit of life into the market. The central bank noted that risks to the global economy have lessened and highlighted the lagged stimulus from previous cuts. That was a hint that they're more comfortable on the sidelines than markets may have believed. Still, it's two months until the next meeting and they retained a dovish bias with no real urgency. That will give them maximum flexibility through the holidays. As for the market, AUD/USD climbed 20 pips to 0.6840 on the decision and is now steady there. That broke the Nov 19 high and put the best level since Nov 14.
The France tariffs were generally expected but underscore Trump's 'tariff man' persona. Still, they delivered little in the way of market moves aside from a few pips lower in the euro.
USD/JPY recovered about 20 pips of Monday's 65 pip decline in a steady rise to 109.20. There's no particular driver behind the gains with US equity futures unchanged.
The pound is fractionally higher. The BRC number was poor at first blush but once you adjust because Black Friday fell during a different week, it was a strong number. The pound showed little interest either way as it chops around unchanged levels at 1.2940. It's all about the election polls right now.
