Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 31 January 2019
- Fitch ratings confirms New Zealand at AA and says outlook is stable
- Responses to China PMIs: 'growth momentum will more likely weaken further in H1'
- Deutsche Bank 'fairly positive' on yen
- Australian credit growth data earlier - soft end to 2018
- General Motors suspending operations at 11 auto plants in Michigan
- Another Australian bank hikes mortgage rates
- Barclays loses patience with Brexit, moves £166bn of assets to Dublin
- Foxconn is reconsidering plans to make LCD panels at Wisconsin plant
- Goldman Sachs on the FOMC and Powell
- FBI investigating Chinese economic espionage in nearly all its 56 field offices around the US
- China January manufacturing PMI got a boost, but still in contraction
- China manufacturing and services PMIs earlier - recap
- BOJ dep gov Amamiya says must continue with easing to hit inflation goal
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.7025 (vs. yesterday at 6.7343)
- China official manufacturing PMI for January: 49.5 (vs. expected at 49.3)
- China non-manufacturing PMI (January): 54.7 (expected 53.8)
- Australia import and export price indexes (Q4 2018)
- Australia, private sector credit for December 2018: 0.2% m/m (expected 0.3%)
- S&P raises New Zealand outlook to positive
- UK PM May promises cash to Labour opposition to support her Brexit deal
- UK data - Lloyds business barometer for Jan comes in at 19 (vs. prior 17)
- UK data - GfK consumer confidence for January: -14 (vs. expected -15)
- Bank of Japan Summary of Opinions (January meeting) out now
- Japan industrial production for December, preliminary: -0.1% m/m (expected -0.5%)
- CNN reports that North Korea denuclearization talks 'got nowhere'
- Morgan Stanley on the yuan and China
- German fin min monthly report: risks to growth remain high
- UBS - 'More Brexit pain is needed before markets can price a true bull case for UK assets'
- CS on the implications of the Brexit voting 'more uncertainty and stress'
- Gundlach says Fed Chair Powell is 'caving to the stock market'
- Yeah, TVM Jerome. Can we get back to Brexit headline ping pong now?
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 31 January 2019
The USD extended its slide in Asia today against a few currencies but missed out against a few also. The big moves came in US time with the FOMC shifting towards neutral (and even dovish?)
EUR/USD here moved above its US time high, the move was not large (hey, this is Asia) but its above 1.1500 as I update.USD/JPY popped ever so briefly below its US low, USD/CHF making a new low a bit more convincingly (again, the move is small on the session).
NZD/USD had a jump during the NZ morning with S&P raising its outlook for the country (rating maintained at AA, outlook to positive from neutral). Fitch announced later, confirming their own rating on NZ as unchanged, as is their outlook. NZD/USD is not far from its session high as I post.
AUD/USD, too, is on its session high. We had some data from Oz today, slow credit growth but improved terms of trade. Also on the data front, and a focus, China official PMIs. Both improved some but manufacturing PMI remains in contraction with shaky internals. The PBOC took a hammer to USD/CNY again today, to its lowest since mid-July of last year at the central rate setting.
Still to come:
