Forex news for Asia trading Monday 20 April 2015
Weekend
- Greek finmin Varoufarkis: Speculating about euro exit very dangerous
- Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kuroda: Fed raising rates means US recovery is solid
- China cuts reserve ratio by 1 percent
- The videogame that Greek finance minister Varoufakis used to study the eurozone
- Weekend comments from ECB head Draghi ... You really need to read his euro comment
- China securities regulator denies encouraging short selling
- German government on the verge of raising its growth forecasts for this year and next
- Bank of England's Carney: The risk of a sharp and disorderly reversal remains
- Weekend comments from German finmin Schäuble: doubts Greece agreement next week
- Eurogroup's Dijsselbloem: Greece and the euro zone should not play a game of chicken
- Full text of the IMF communique ... moderate global growth, uneven prospects
- Poloz: Bank of Canada will will ignore part of inflation which is due to CAD fall
- IMF says that a clear fiscal reform plan is key to success of BOJ's stimulus
- Comments from ECB Governing Council's Weidmann on the limits of monetary policy
- More from PBOC's Zhou - on what still may trigger market turbulence
- Brazilian finance minister Levy: US Fed policy normalisation - potential adverse effects
- Weekend comments from Russia's Siluanov: Japan & Europe QE, doubts on their success
- Weekend comments from French finmin Sapin: Europe much stronger, the danger is for Greece
- China new home prices March yy -6.1% vs -5.7% prev
- PBOC gov Zhou says they will accelerate reforms to support yuan inclusion in IMF SDRs
Monday:
- NZ PM Key comments on housing market
- M6.8 earthquake near Okinawa, Japan. Warning issued for 1m tsunami
- China stock open ... lower
- Moody's: strengthening US economy reduces residential mortgage arrears
- US press: Greece flashes warning signals about its debt
- In addition to the RRR cut over the weekend, the PBOC is considering more stimulus options
- China - People's Daily: China economy may rebound as soon as in H2
- BOJ Governor Kuroda: 'What We Know and What We Do Not Know about Inflation Expectations'
- Japan data: February Tertiary Industry index: +0.3% m/m (vs. -0.7% expected)
- Reuters Tankan survey: Manufacturing index 12 in April (vs. +16 in March)
- UK press: "UK economy has reached "escape velocity""
- UK Rightmove House Price index for April: +1.6% m/m (vs. +1% prior)
- New Zealand Q1 CPI: -0.3% q/q (vs. -0.2% expected)
- More from Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis
- NZ services PMI for March: 57.6 (prior was 55.6)
- More on the PBOC RRR cut - biggest in 7 years
- WSJ: "Europe Braces for Messy Greek Endgame"
It was a weekend packed with news and commentary, and it turned into a Monday that was more-or-less as sedate as they come.
I've bolded what I believe were the most important items from the weekend and Monday in the list of bullet points above.
Price movement? OK, Monday saw a relatively flat day for the EUR/USD, GBP/USD and USD/CHF. All had small ranges.
USD/JPY was barely more active, finding a high for the session in the early going just above 119 and a low around the Tokyo open (just after) of around 118.76.
AUD and NZD were more interesting. Both jumped on the very early NZ market opening for the week, 0.7843 and 0.7724 highs against the USD (or thereabouts in this OTC market) on the back of the news from China on Sunday that the PBOC had sliced 1% off the RRR, a system-wide cut. Both retraced their early gains before ticking back toward (but not achieving) the very early session highs.
Gold is trading near the day's lows as i update, but within a narrow range for the day.
Oil is close to its highs for the day, with June WTI above $58 as I update.
Chinese stocks started the day with a bit of a wobble following the news of a margin clampdown late on Friday but popped higher in morning trade. The PBOC cut and the outlook for further easing helping the market along.
