Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 8 April 2020
- OPEC+ Thursday meeting not the only oil focus - G20 oil meeting on Friday
- EUR/USD: downside risks point to parity and lower
- Westpac on potential oil output cuts - enough to offset the collapse in demand?
- Goldman Sachs expect Japan GDP record contraction of 25% in Q2
- COVID-19 - Canada's Deputy Foreign Minister has tested positive
- Trump says he had talks with Putin, Saudi Prince on oil - its all going to work out
- NZ PM Ardern urges business to prepare for lower alert levels
- BOJ says it will take necessary steps to ensure economic stability
- More from Trump: USD is strong, EUR is "peanuts"
- Australian February housing finance - February data all lower
- Trump comments on reopening the economy (Fox interview)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0483 (vs. yesterday at 7.0939)
- FX option expiries for Wednesday April 8 at the 10am NY cut
- New Zealand - ANZ preliminary business confidence for April: -73.1 (prior -63.5)
- First (of many?) Australian banks delays its dividend payment
- NZ statistics bureau release preliminary trade data for Feb and March 2020
- Japan - Core Machinery Orders for February +2.3% m/m (expected -2.9%)
- S&P cut Australia to AAA negative
- RBNZ says it is open to increasing the size of QE - citing a rapidly evolving situation
- US VP Pence says CDC to issue new guidance on who can return to workplace
- UK - Only 1% of firms have successfully accessed coronavirus financial help from the government
- Will China lower its GDP target, or even scrap it altogether?
- Goldman Sachs analyst on downside risk for US equities
- EU top scientist resigned: "extremely disappointed by European response to Covid-19"
- Latest info out of the Eurogroup is there will be a statement Wednesday
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 08 April 2020
- Private oil survey data shows larger than expected build in crude oil inventory
The USD net gained during the session. US President Trump, despite in the past decrying the gains for the USD, mentioned on two separate occasions (at his coronavirus press briefing and then again later in a Fox TV interview) how strong the dollar is - he even said the EUR was 'peanuts' compared to it. Did the president's remarks cause the rally in the dollar? That is debatable but nevertheless it chalked up some broad gains, albeit not big ones.
Earlier on in the session it was the yen that had gained, USD/JPY traded down toawards 108.50 but is 30+ points higher as I update.
There were no updates out of the UK about the condition of UK PM Johnson who remains in intensive care. GBP weakened a little against the USD.
We also await anything out of the group of euro area finance minsters, a press conference has been scheduled for the European morning (10am Brussels time, 0800GMT). EUR is down from 1.09 highs under 1.0870.
Data from NZ showed a (preliminary) record low for business confidence (ANZ survey) while S&P ratcheted down their outlook for Australia from stable to negative while leaving the AAA rating intact. AUD and NZD are both down on the session against the US dollar.
There was little fresh news on oil nor gold (there was the private survey stock data for oil, see bullets above, also some comments out of Iran). Trump again said he has been in communication with leaders of Russia and Saudi on oil and that 'it'll all work out' (he made similarly vague comments on the US economy shut down related to the coronavirus outbreak response).
ps. ANZ EUR/USD forecasts:
