Forex news for Asia trading Monday 31 August 2020
- Thailand examining a land passageway to connect the Indian and Pacific Oceans
- Fitch Ratings flags Singapore's bank ratings at risk
- Australia's 2nd most populous state may get a 'road map' out of lock down
- Australian data recap - jump in profits
- Australia Private Sector Credit for July -0.1% m/m (expected -0.1%)
- Australia Inventories for Q2 -3.0% q/q (vs. expected -1.0%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.8605 (vs. yesterday at 6.8891)
- FX option expiries for Monday August 31 at the 10am NY cut
- Australia - Melbourne Institute monthly CPI inflation for August: 1.3% y/y (prior 1.3%)
- China PMIs (August) Manufacturing 51.0 (expected 51.2) Non-manufacturing 55.2 (expected 54.2)
- New Zealand ANZ business survey for August final. Confidence: -41.8 Activity: -17.5
- USD/JPY forecast to 101 in Q1 next year
- Australian state of Victoria 73 new confirmed coronavirus cases
- Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway has acquired more than 5% in each of the 5 leading Japanese trading companies
- Japan Retail sales for July -3.3% m/m (expected -2.5%)
- Japan Industrial Production for July (preliminary): +8.0% m/m (expected 5.0%)
- Four of China's five largest state-owned banks have increased bad debt provisions
- Here are the two frontrunners to be next PM of Japan
- Rushing an untried COVID-19 vaccine could potentially worsen the crisis
- Australian industry group calls for bringing forward tax cuts
- Japan press - "Abenomics here to stay"
- Trade ideas thread - Monday 31 August 2020
- Sunday Times reports the UK "plans for a £30bn tax raid on the wealthy"
- UK ready to walk away from Brexit trade talks
- France's health ministry says the “exponential” rise in new coronavirus cases is "very worrying"
- ByteDance needs Chinese government approval to sell the US operations of TikTok
- Sinovac coronavirus vaccine candidate approved for emergency use in China
- US FDA head says willing to fast-track vaccine approval. Says he is not brown-nosing Trump though.
- Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices 31 August 2020
- Happy 90th birthday to Warren Buffett
- The factors supporting gold to remain in place - further upside for the price
Some minor swings for currencies on the session here and some notable news flow over the weekend and through the trading session here Monday.
Head of the US FDA said he was willing to fast track vaccine approval outside of normal scientific testing and procedure if benefits outweighed costs (which is what the normal process is supposed to show but there you go). In China a vaccine candidate was approved for emergency use. These two items underpinned sentiment early in the session.
On the flip side of the coronavirus issues the French health ministry said rocketing case numbers there were 'very worrying'.
Japanese share markets took heart from the news that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had acquired 5% stakes in each of the 5 biggest Japanese trading companies, totalling around USD $6bn worth.
On the data front the focus was on official China PMIs for August which came in steady to better and firmly in expansion. The manufacturing measure did miss expectations slightly, likely due to the widespread flood impacts in the month. Non-manufacturing was more encouraging though, indicating an improving consumer sector.
While on China, the country launched a second, separate investigation into Australian wine imports - a countervailing duties investigation in addition to the anti-dumping probe announced a couple of weeks ago. This second investigation does not come as too much of a surprise, the Australian trade minister had pondered its likelihood at the time the original probe was announced by China.
Data from Australia (for Q2) today showed the expected drop in inventories due to the panic-buying ahead of lockdown for the country, also that corporate profits were stronger than expected (bolstered by government support) and that wages/salaries fell in every state.
Net change for currencies has been small despite some reasonable sized (for Asia trade) swings during the session. Gold was confined to a small range only.
USD/JPY moved 50+ points from its low in very early trade, popping above 105.75 on the back of some trader stop losses but not sustaining the level. Jockeying for the soon-to-be-vacant PM position is in full swing in Japan, Cabinet Secretary Suga to throw his hat into the ring. He could well be the most steady hand candidate for markets - Suga regularly addresses media and markets in his current role and is not an unknown quantity.
