Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 31 March 2016
- Reuters poll: Japan fund managers reduce Japan bond holdings to lowest since June '15
- BOJ Governor Kuroda comments reported from parliament now
- FT reports "China investment bank defaults on ‘dim sum’ bond"
- and China's Guosen Securities HK unit says there has been no "breach" of offshore yuan bond
- Bank of China sees China Q1 GDP growth at about 6.6%, Q2 at about 6.7%
- Attn: Yellen, Kuroda, Draghi! Oil industry downturn produces unexpected helicopter surplus
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.4612 (vs. yesterday at 6.4841)
- USD/JPY gains in past minutes - appears fix related
- Swiss National Bank ready to act on CHF
- Australia: Private sector credit (February): +0.6% m/m (expected +0.5%)
- NZ - ANZ Business confidence for March: 3.2 (prior 7.1)
- Australia - HIA New Home Sales for February: -5.3% (prior +3.1%)
- Moody's: Australian mortgage delinquencies to rise in 2016
- OZ opinion piece: "Brace yourselves for a downgrade of Australia’s AAA credit rating"
- Bank of American bans the "B" word
- UK data - business 'barometer' and consumer confidence
- 2 vacancies on BOJ Board filled - but the risk of 'groupthink' heightens
- ANZ on EUR, GBP, AUD and NZD - ranges and forecasts
- The Fed is data dependent, but which data? Not employment and inflation.
- Japan demand for foreign assets strong, even in the face of year-end repatriation
- HSBC on strong Australian dollar: Could weigh on growth prospects
- Trade ideas thread for Thursday 31 March 2016
- We've found somewhere else to store all that oil!
- New Zealand Money Supply M3 Y/Y (Feb) +7.3%, previous +7.6%)
USD/JPY a mover into the Tokyo fix today, jumping quickly from circa -112.30 toward 112.70 only to drift pretty much all the way back in subsequent hours.
Other currencies moved more quietly but net lost a little ground against the USD; EUR, GBP, CHF, AUD and NZD all lower against the US.
We had lower-tier data out of Australia and New Zealand during the session, nothing to impact too greatly on the FX.
The PBOC set the yuan (CNY) as its strongest midpoint of the year today.
- Slashed 0.35% from USD/CNY, for its biggest drop since March 18 (that woulda been the St. Patrick's Day massacre, but missed it by one day)
Oil was lower, while gold is little changed on the session.
A notable piece of news was a potential default from a unit of a Chinese investment bank (see bullets above). FT with the report, while the company says the report contains "exaggerations".
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +0.14%
- Shanghai +0.36%
- HK -0.23%
- ASX +1.26%
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