The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today
- Reminder – BOJ meets with market players on April 11th
- China March trade balance -$0.88bn (vs. $15.15bn expected)
- China March exports +10.0% y/y (vs. +11.7% expected)
- China March imports +14.1% y/y (vs. +6.0% expected)
- New Zealand card/retail sales +4.2% in March y/y, while the seasonally adjusted figures, for the m/m came in at -0.5%
- Japan March bank lending (incl. trusts) +1.6% y/y (vs. +1.5% prior)
- Japan March bank lending (excl. trusts) +1.9% y/y (vs. +1.8% prior)
- Australia Westpac/MI Consumer Sentiment for April falls 5.1% to 104.9 (vs. 110.5 Prior)
- Japanese PM Abe said in pariament the BOJ would continue easing until inflation target reached, and that change of deflation mindset would come through bold BOJ easing (he didn’t actually say that beatings would continue until morale improves, but you get the idea)
- RBA’s Kent reiterated that low inflation in Australia allowed ‘scope for a further rate cut’, more here
- The China Securities Journal headlined: No reason to tighten monetary policy
- Australian Treasurer Swan said AUD is ‘defying gravity’
Quiet range-bound session in Asia overall.
USD/JPY traded in a 98.90/99.20 range, with little in the way of new inputs to give it a shove in either direction. Abe spoke in parliament without saying much (a politician’s gift).
EUR/USD found support around 1.3075/80 but offers above 1.3085 – yes indeed a very tight range. it is approaching very big resistance levels 1.3110 – 1.3150.
GBP/USD was little better, 1.5310 – 1.5330 containing it.
NZD/USD. too, very flat on the day. It too is approaching important resistance, around 0.8535/45.
AUD/USd the one bright spot, with a little bit of movement in response to the Chinese trade data. It had found support around 1.0480 throughout the session leading into the Chinese data release. The slight deficit saw a kneed-jerk offer, of miniscule size as it dipped all of 5 points or so, before almost immediately finding solace in the arms of stronger import data (forgive me, I’m working on my AUD love novel, Fifty Shades of G’day), taking it to test offers at 1.0515/20. It spent the balance of the session, until writing this, in a 1.0503/1.0515 range.
