Forex news for Asia trading on Thursday 5 August 2021
- Westpac like long NZD/USD but note the risk of a stronger USD
- JP Morgan has launched an in-house Bitcoin fund
- Australia weekly jobs data - jobs down again
- Australia trade balance for June 10.496bn AUD surplus(vs. expected surplus 10.45bn AUD)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4691 (vs. yesterday at 6.4655)
- NSW, epicentre of Australia's current Covid outbreak announce wider lockdowns - Newcastle, Hunter
- Australia coronavirus - New cases reported in NSW state: 262
- Chinese state media (Securities Times) flags further measures targetting gaming stocks
- Here's a guide to What China keeps in its vast, secretive commodity reserves
- Australian state Queensland records another higher new COVID-19 case count today
- Recap of comments from Fed's Daly - sees taper later this year or early 2022
- Bank of England monetary policy meeting Thursday 5 August 2021 - what to watch
- Morgan Stanley neutral USD/CAD, bearish CAD
- ICYMI - China’s National Petroleum Corp. warns of a 5% decline in short term oil demand
- Fed lining up for taper announcement? Waller, Clarida, Bullard, now even Daly.
- Fed's Daly says rise in house price will resolve as more supply comes online
- Japan chipping away - another 8 prefectures to adopt quasi state of emergency
- First Australian company to mandate vaccines for all onsite staff and visitors
- Brazil's central bank has raised its benchmark rate by 1%, as expected
- Magnitude 6.5 earthquake near Taiwan
- A Crypto reminder - Major Ethereum update scheduled today, Thursday 5 August 2021
- Bank of England monetary policy meeting Thursday 5 August 2021 - preview
- UK says arrivals from France will no longer need to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated
- The US is putting together a plan to require foreign visitors to be vaccinated
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 5 August 2021
- Fully vaccinated US travellers to be allowed to enter Canada might not find it easy ...
ICYMI the US dollar had a big Wednesday during US time, dipping a little on a sad ADP jobs report and then posting large gains on a record high ISM services index and simultaneous comments from Vice Chair Clarida:
During the session here in Asia forex volatility and ranges have slumped, but the dollar has mainly held its gains. USD/JPY ticked a little higher, to just over 109.70 (its not far from there as I post). USD/CHF, too, extended a little higher. EUR and GBP have dibbled slightly lower against the dollar. On the other hand CAD, AUD and NZD have shown very small gains against the dollar for the session. CAD is performing well (relative to AUD and NZD, which both slumped on Wednesday US time against the dollar).
It was a light day for data, the Australian trade balance came in at a huge surplus (its 42nd month in a row of surplus), higher prices a strong contributor to export performance. This may be a short-lived phenomenon as Dalian iron ore hit a 4 month low in trading today. Payroll data from Australia was not so positive, the ongoing lockdown in Australia's largest population state and city (NSW & Sydney) is biting into jobs. Sydney has been in its lockdown for 6 weeks and registered its worst 24 hours in that time for new cases in today's numbers.
In other coronavirus-related news Japan is moving further towards wider states of emergency declarations as case counts stubbornly rise there also. China is locking down too, harshly, as China does, as case counts rise there (see bullets above for more on the COVID-19 news in the region).
USD/CAD 5 min candles:
