The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today, Tuesday June 18
- The Reserve Bank of Australia released the minutes of their June 4 policy meeting today – summary and full text, also recap here
- China Actual Foreign Direct Investment for May +0.29% y/y (vs. +0.4% prior)
- China average new home prices in China’s 70 major cities up 6% y/y in May
- Conference Board China May Leading Economic Index +0.3% to 261.6
- South Korean PPI: -0.4% m/m (vs. -0.3% prior)
- Standard and Poors: Sees a 0.5% contraction in Europe real GDP in 2013
- Japan’s economy minister Amari: Abenomics well received at G8 summit
- Japan’s finance minister Aso: Important to pursue fiscal discipline to maintain trust in government bond market
- Japan’s chief cabinet secretary Suga: Abenomics received extremely high approval at G8
It was a light day for economic data releases, and also a relatively quiet session on the currency markets.
EUR/USD drifted ever so slightly lower, as did GBP/USD. USD/CHF was barey hanged on the day.
USD/JPY moved a little higher, running into offers around 95.00. There were plenty of comments from officialdom in Japan (see bullets above, and follow links for more comments from Suga, Aso and Amari) but volatility was was very, very low by recent standards.
AUD/USD traded a little higher this morning. overnight news and much speculation about possible easing in China helped it hold its ground and tick higher in the morning, but no sign of easing out China saw it lose its gains into the release of the RBA minutes. there was some volatility on the minutes publication, but soon it just began more sustained falling (although the extent was limited). It goes into very early Europe near its lows for the session (as I type). NZD/USD largely tracked the AUD, but as is so often the case of late, its losses were not as great as those of the AUD.
