Forex news for Asia trading on Monday 31 May 2021
- EUR/USD trade recommendation, long EUR
- USD/JPY is off 20 points from its session high
- RBA monetary policy meeting Tuesday 1 June 2021 - preview - no fireworks
- Australia Private Sector Credit for April 0.2% m/m (expected 0.4%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.3682 (vs. Friday at 6.3858)
- Australia - Melbourne Institute monthly CPI inflation for May -0.2% m/m (prior 0.4%)
- NZ May Business confidence 1.8 (prior -2) and Activity 27.1 (prior +22.2)
- China official PMIs for May, manufacturing 51.0 (estimate was 51.1)
- Chinese traders bypass government control on crypto trading - OTC, P2P trades
- Kiyosaki hailing the fall in BTC price as Great news - targets US$27K to maybe buy
- Japan Retail sales for April +12% y/y
- Japan Industrial Production for April +2.5% m/m (expected +3.9%)
- Chinese think-tank says while US tariffs on China are likely to remain in place a middle ground might be found
- Heads up for UK and US holidays today, Monday 31 May 2021
- WSJ on Biden's infrastructure discussions extending into June
- Goldman Sachs will double its yearly investment into Japan property
- The UK is abandoning COVID-19 vaccine passport plans
- Coronavirus - Vietnam has reportedly found a new COVID-19 variant, combines UK and Indian strains
- Trade ideas thread - Monday 31 May 2021
- Weekend - China regulator says will further crackdown on market manipulation
- New Zealand says it is supporting Australia in trade dispute with China
- Yuan comments from an ex-PBOC official - Rapid appreciation is not sustainable, Bank will act
- Swiss National Bank Chair Jordan says the CHF remains highly valued
- Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices - 31 May 2021
China's yuan had a volatile session, losing ground in early trading on the back of weekend remarks out of China expressing concern on the currency's strength, with an ex-PBOC official forecasting action to stem its rapid appreciation. USD/CNH traded up to around 6.3730 before dropping away. The People's Bank of China reference rate setting was once again for a strong yuan, its strongest mid-rate since the middle of May in 2017. The mid-rate was not as strong as the central survey estimate though, prompting the argument the PBOC wants to slow the rate of appreciation. Given how yuan is surging I'm not sure that is a very helpful take. USD/CNH has since dropped sharply, back to circa 1.3570 as I post.
There were a number of economic data points out during the session, notably Japanese industrial production and retail sales, both a miss, along with official China PMIs for May.
The China data was a very slight disappointment for manufacturing PMI but a welcome improvement for services, an indicator the domestic economy is improving.
USD/JPY had a sharpish drop from session highs at the Tokyo fix (the final for the month), coming off 20+ points soon after. AUD and NZD have both gone up a little against the dollar, EUR and GBP also.
Cryptos had a heavy weekend, down a little with some retrace. Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda made comments on Bitcoin back on Thursday which were referred to as a reason for the drop in BTC, which seems more of a back-fitted narrative than anything else TBH.
On the coronavirus news front, Vietnam have found a new variant that manages to combine the awfulness of the UK and Indian variants into one mutant.
A reminder ICYMI, the UK and US are out for holidays today, Monday.
