Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 4 September 2019
- Oil - Russian Energy Minister affirms continued cooperation with Saudi and OPEC
- Australian GDP growth is under RBA forecast (again) - where now for the RBA?
- WSJ report China says it has the power to declare a state of emergency in Hong Kong if unrest continues
- Australian Treasurer Frydenberg says business investment boost measures would come in the May budget!
- What's the outlook for Australia's economy ahead - "challenging times"
- Hong Kong's private sector downturn deepened in August - trade wars, protests
- Australia August vehicle purchases data out: New vehicle sales down 10.1%
- China Caixin/Markit Services 52.1 and Composite 51.6 PMIs for August
- BOJ's Kataoka says its important the BOJ takes pre-emptive action
- Australia GDP for Q2: 0.5% q/q (expected 0.5%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0878 (vs. yesterday at 7.0884 )
- FX option expiries for Wednesday September 4 at the 10am NY cut
- New Zealand ANZ Commodity Prices for August: 0.3% m/m (prior -1.4%)
- China is to invest $280bn developing Iran's oil, gas and petrochemicals sectors
- Japan Jibun/Markit final PMIs for August: Services 53.3, Composite 51.9.
- Gold forecast: USD 1600 as more Federal Reserve rate cuts
- 8 out of 10 economists tipping an ECB easing package in September
- This week, every day is Brexit debacle day! Here's where we are at.
- China Securities Journal piece says seeing PBOC likely to cut MLF rate in September
- Australia CBA/Markit PMIs: Services 49.1 and Composite 49.3
- Pelosi expresses NAFTA concerns to Canadian PM Trudeau
- Australia AiG Services PMI: 51.4 (prior 43.9)
- EUR/USD to stay weak, ECB next week
- Another central bank rate cut - this time Chile
- Fed's Rosengren says he does not want to use up valuable policy space at this time
- Fed's Rosengren says he does not see much need for taking additional policy action
- Brexit - UK government loses vote, parliament votes to block no deal
- Fed's Rosengren says if risks to the US economy materialise the Fed should cut aggressively
- Brexit - Ireland's finance minister says he has no doubts about the backstop
- Fed Bullard says a 50bp cut would align the Federal Reserve with market expectations
- EU to use Solidarity fund to support EU countries hit by a no-deal Brexit
Brexit news was the early focus as the UK Parliament voted to begin the process of requiring Boris Johnson to ask the European Union for an extension to the exit date from the current October 31, 2019, to the end of January 2020. Johnson has threatened to bring a bill to parliament on Wednesday seeking an early election. As they say on TV commercials, conditions apply, and you can get more details at this post on what's coming up Wednesday:
GBP/USD had a bit of a swing in a smallish range on the announcement of the vote result but soon settled little changed before creeping higher for the balance of the Asian session (as I update) to be above 1.2110.
As all this was going on we had divergent comments from Fed officials, Bullard is keen to cut rates by 50bps while Rosengren is still in watch and wait mode. There is a further avalanche of Fed speakers to come today.
Australian GDP data for Q2 showed economic growth in the second quarter at its slowest since the GFC. More in the bullets above but the gist of it is a very weak domestic private sector while government spending and exports are the positives. The Australia dollar moved from just above 0.6760 to circa 0.6780 where it has since remained.
NZD/USD too moved a touch higher on the session. CAD, too, added just a few points net on the day.
EUR/USD has tracked a small range centring around 1.0975. USD/JPY and USD/CHF are little net changed also.
Gold retried 1550USD but dropped back a few dollars.
