Forex news from the Asian trading session - 7 May 2018
Headlines:
- PBOC's Yi Gang says no FX intervention over the past year
- Japan's Suga says trilateral summit with China and South Korea is being held at an important time
- Australia April ANZ job advertisements -0.2% vs 0.0% m/m prior
- Australia April NAB business confidence 10 vs 7 prior
- BOJ leaves bond purchase amounts unchanged in regular operation
- PBOC sets USD/CNY reference rate at 6.3584 vs 6.3521 on Friday
- Australia's housing market on track for an "orderly slowdown", says Westpac CEO
- BOJ March meeting minutes: Most members say appropriate for BOJ to keep easing persistently
- Trump/Kim summit most likely to take place in June
- Fed's Quarles: Artificial Intelligence in finance can help make bank credit
- Econ. Information Daily reports: China may lower import tariffs on some food/drugs
- AiG Performance of Construction index for April 55.4 vs 57.2 last
- Dallas Fed's Kaplan: The medium term picture is more challenging for me
- Australia's treasurer: No mammoth tax cuts ahead. AUDUSD opens little changed.
Markets:
- GBP leads, AUD lags on the day
- Asian equities mixed, as Chinese stocks lead the way
- Gold up by 0.16% to $1,317.40
- WTI up by 1.05% to $70.45
- US 10-year yields flat at 2.951%
- Bitcoin down by 3.51% to $9,345
A steady start to the week for the most part, but not without its ups and downs early on. The dollar opened at the highs against most currencies on the major bloc before slowly surrendering gains from Friday during the session.
Data points and headlines failed to provide any form of spark in the currency space as movement was largely driven by flows.
The breakout story of the session was oil, as WTI breaks the $70 barrier and Brent trades to its highest level in nearly 4 years as the Iran deadline on 12 May looms.
USD/JPY traded around 109.00 early on before breaking the figure level and touching a low of 108.76 on the day, before racing back up now to trade at 109.09. It's been a session of give and take mostly. Key level to watch for in the pair is 108.55-60 where strong bids are reported.
EUR/USD traded to a high of 1.1978 earlier as well, before falling now to 1.1966. Apart from that, GBP/USD started near the lows before inching higher to post a high of 1.3565 and trades near there at 1.3554 now. USD/CHF falls below parity to a low of 0.9984 before now coming back up to 0.9992.
USD/CAD is little changed on the day, trading between 1.2845-55 for the most part.
The kiwi stays supported while the aussie lags behind as cross flows see the latter falling behind on the day for the most part. AUD/USD did climb to pare losses, but is now back lower on the day again.
