Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 4 August 20
- Japan's Yamamoto: Will work to implement growth strategy in 3rd arrow
- USD/JPY under 101
- BOJ dep gov Iwata cites global weakness for why BOJ eased further
- Australia - Retail Sales for June: 0.1% m/m (expected +0.3%, prior 0.2%)
- People’s Bank of China yuan reference rate at 6.6444 (vs. yesterday at 6.6195)
- News about of knife attack in central London
- AUD/USD back above 0.7600
- Here's Goldman Sachs' list of everything else the Bank of Japan can buy
- Westpac on what to expect for GBP on the BoE: "Likely to move sharply"
- China press says should address property bubble by credit and tax policy
- How to trade the August BOE interest rate decision
- Goldman Sachs on 3 things to expect from the Bank of England today (& GBP reaction)
- Why does the RBA not do more? "Because actually, the economy is performing quite well"
- Its Thursday, that must mean its BoE meeting day - here are the poll numbers
- China's NDRC mysterious retraction highlights schisms at the top
- Japan overnight press (opinion piece in the Nikkei) on the yen
- Its the Thursday trade ideas thread! 4 August 2016
There was little in the way of data flow from Asia today, Aussie retail sales for June and Q2 was the main item.
The data came in at a big miss, which was especially disappointing as anecdotal reports pointed to a good result due to cold weather giving spending a boost (that was theory, anyway). The poor data seems to be evidence of the slow wage growth leading to slower spending story that has been around for a good while now. It also throws a shadow over the 'RBA only eased because of low inflation' story, perhaps there was more to it than that.
But, let's take a step back.
In the early goings there was little forex movement. GBP edged a little higher. AUD and NZD pretty much kicked the moves off for the session, AUD gaining as Tokyo became active, dragging NZD a little higher (but AUD/NZD sellers held the NZD/USD gain to a more limited extent). The buying was widespread, exporters and offshore funds cited as buyers.
The release of the retail sales disappointment saw a spike a little lower for the AUD before it regained its strength and made a new high on the session. There is plenty of bullishness about on the AUD at present, but I don't know how long it will last TBH.
USD/JPY started a small move lower, some news crossed re a knife attack in London (one fatality and 6 injuries - and so far it has not been confirmed as terrorism related) seeing a flow to yen, but comments from BOJ Deputy Governor Iwata also weighed. Iwata pretty much stuck to the BOJ script, casting doubt that there is much sense of urgency there at all.
USD/JPY traded under 100.90 before recovering a little, this came as comments from new Regional Economy Minister Kozo Yamamoto crossed, he was a bit more gung-ho on what needs to be done (just a bit, but he does have a reputation for advocating unconventional policy, Bloomberg have a profile of him here if you are interested)
Meanwhile, cable has continued to tick slightly stronger on the session, but not a lot in it ahead of the Bank of England meeting today during London time.
EUR and CHF are little changed against the USD (both down against the net stronger yen today).
The People's Bank of China devalued the CNY (against the USD) today, by a decent margin (the most since early July).
Gold chopped a little and is net lower, oil is little changed.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei +0.34%
- Shanghai -0.19%
- HK +0.58%
- ASX +0.48%
Don't forget - its Bank of England announcement day - plenty of previews and info here
