The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today, Friday June 14
Light data day in Asia
- BOJ minutes from May 21-22 meeting were released. Link to full text. (PDF). This meeting was from when JGB yields were rising but before the Nikkei started its collapse.
- Story from local Chinese press of a $75bn overstatement in trade dat from January-April
- The Japanese cabinet approved the ‘third arrow’ growth strategy
- New Zealand May manufacturing PMI at 59.2 (vs. 55.2 prior), Highest in 9 years
- New Zealand Food Price Index for May +0.3% m/m (vs. +0.2% prior)
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand research: Drought will reduce 2013 annual GDP by 0.6% (and more comments at the link)
- US Treasury Secretary Lew: Sees fiscal drag from sequestration (and more comments at the link)
- Japan’s economy minister Amari: Says wants to put Japan economy back on a sound path to growth (more from Amari at the link, and even more here)
The USD/JPY and Nikkei futures were both signalling a higher open for the Nikkei, which we got. But after a small upmove from the opening price it sold off heavily. USD/JPY fell very hard indeed. It got as high as 0.9580/85 in very late New York and went into the Tokyo open around 95.60, falling rapidly to 95.10 where it stabilized for 15 minutes before flushing further to 94.43, where it finally found a bit of support. Chopped around 50/70 before rushing above 95.10 to encounter sellers again. It was a thin liquidity session, much in the way of order interest having been either removed from, or executed in, the market over previous hours. Expect more volatility today in the European and North American session as the low-volume choppiness continues.
AUD/USD traded higher in the New York afternoon spiking to 0.9665. From there it fell in a heap, grinding back to below 0.9580. The Hilsenrath article was blamed for the spike.
GBP/USD was not where the action was, it had a quiet range around 1.5705. Euro, though slightly more active, was also confined in a tight range around 1.3350-75 against the USD. EUR/JPY was wilder, subject as it is to yen volatility.
