Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Friday 5 October 2018
- On the EUR - 'Italy is turning into a permanently negative factor'
- 4 new FX trades from Morgan Stanley - stops, targets
- RBA's Heath comments on Australian labour market - still spare capacity
- Australia Retail Sales for August: +0.3% m/m (expected +0.2%)
- Japan M5.3 earthquake, no tsunami warning issued
- Japan wages data for August is a miss on estimates
- US 'Broadside' against China continues: Pentagon report on significant, growing risk
- Japan data: Overall Household Spending for August: +2.8% m/m (expected +0.1%)
- ICYMI: BOJ will be tolerant of higher JGB yields
- NZD traders - Bloomberg on 'Sweeping reforms raise concerns about RBNZ’s independence'
- China says US Vice President Pence is making unwarranted accusations
- More from DoubleLine's Gundlach on 30-year US Treasury signalling higher bond yields
- Australia Construction PMI for September: 49.3 (prior 51.8)
- 4 reasons the euro will find support into 2019 (and EUR/USD forecast)
- Check this out: 'Be Wary Of Shifting Fed Stories'
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 5 October 2018
There was little fresh news to act as a catalyst for Asian forex moves, although we did get some Australian data (bullet above, retail sales, discussed below) and Japanese data (bullets above)
USD/JPY popped back above 114 during the Tokyo morning but soon drifted back down to be little changed on the session, circa 113.90, as I update. Spending data was a huge beat, quite a shock. not that the yen did much. Wages data, on the other hand, was a miss. But we are accustomed to that! More in the bullets above on both of these
EUR/USD has slipped just a handful of points, a very small range. USD/CHF, meanwhile was its mirror, up a few points here. We seemed to get a break from any impactful Brexit headlines, cable taking the day off and down just a few tics for the session.
Australian retail sales data was a beat for the month (+0.3% m/m and +3.8% y/y), not that the AUD paid it too much attention. While a beat the market is still very concerned on:
- falling home prices
- weak wage growth
- an 11 year low in the savings rate
The Australian dollar continued to mostly sag on the session, though the range was small. The usual suspects; rising trade war tensions (mutating into a cold war it seems) and rising US rates the primary drivers of the pair. NZD/USD lower also, again not a large range but an even clearer dip on the day.
Regional equity markets here were lower again. The fall-out from rising US rates continues.
Still to come:
- Heads up for the US NFP jobs report today - all the previews in one place
- Canadian jobs data also due today - preview
- Friday forex option expiry data - 10am New York cut
- Heads up for forex option expiries into the new week
Nikkei, past month:
