Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 26 May 2020
- Data on electronic card spending in Australia is up y/y
- More from Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda - BOJ will do whatever it can
- HK leader Carrie Lam says no need to worry about rights and freedoms
- China military's HK garrison commander comments on Hong Kong security and more
- Saudi Arabia eases coronavirus lockdown restrictions - to allow domestic flights
- Trudeau says undecided on whether to block Huawei from 5G networks
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1293 (vs. yesterday at 7.1209)
- FX option expiries for Tuesday May 26 at the 10am NY cut
- Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda says economy to remain in a severe situation
- PBOC Gov Yi says China's positive economic fundamentals will not change
- Another NZ North Island earthquake M5.2
- Singapore's central bank says monetary policy remains unchanged, appropriate
- Wuhan's 'Bat woman' says coronavirus is "just the tip of the iceberg"
- Singapore Q1 GDP -4.7% q/q annualised and -0.7% y/y
- Japan data: April services PPI +1.0% y/y (expected +1.2%)
- Australia weekly consumer confidence edges higher to 92.7 (prior 92.3)
- Japan has given up on hopes of approving coronavirus treatment Avigan by end May
- Hong Kong's trade unions calls for general strike on May 27 in response to China's National Security Law
- NZ data, exports in April $NZ5.26bn (vs 5.30bn expected)
- China is to evacuate citizens from India - says in response to lockdown
- ECB's Villeroy spoke Monday (ICYMI) - another sign of more ECB QE bond buys
- More on that Novavax Coronavirus vaccine human testing getting underway
- Wuhan is back in the news - researcher says new US legislation is "ill-willed and malicious"
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 26 May 2020 (or is it Monday 2.0?)
- Novavax will begin human testing of its coronavirus vaccine ...in Australia
AUD, NZD, GBP, CAD all gained against the USD in the early part of the Asia morning while yen weakened a little. Coming off a US (and UK) holiday long weekend liquidity was thinned out. Despite this the moves were limited to small ranges.
An announcement from a US firm that they were set to conduct human trials of their coronavirus treatment garnered the usual positive response from the market with gains for equities as well as those for the currencies already mentioned. As an offset though Japan has set back their plans for the Avigan drug, it was thought ot be ready byu end-May but work is set to continue past this month.
Further news trickled through of various easing to coronavirus restrictions around the world adding to the slightly more upbeat mood.
From China we got headlines out of HK, soothing comments from authoriti3es contrasting with calls from unions for a general strike tomorrow. The PBOC weakened the CNY at the mid rate setting again today to a fresh new low for the onshore yuan since Feb. of 2008.
EUR/USD added points during the session:
