- China’s official PMI rose slightly in April to 53.3 from 53.1 in March
- Australian Q1 house price index -1.1% QoQ, showing house prices falling faster than expected
- Japans MOF closely monitoring FX market
- Feds Fishe: Fed has done enough
- South Korean trade surplus 3.15 billion in April, down from revised $3.5bln in March
- Thai CPI lower than expected at 2.5% YoY, with lower than expected food prices
- Dutch April PMI 49.0 down from 49.6 in March
- Nikkei -0.9%, All Ords +0.7%; most centres closed for Golden week celebrations
- Gold $1667/oz; Oil $104.75/bbl
Very quiet early session and the Chinese PMI did nothing to liven it up. The market is now waiting for the RBA decision and statement in about 30 minutes time.
AUD/USD has been the most active pair but the fact that it only traded around a 30 pip range tells the whole story. The market has priced in a 25bps rate cut with some talk of a possible 50bps cut. Range pre-RBA of 1.0400/29
USD/JPY has also done very little inside a 15 pip range, 79.78/93, also ignoring the comments from the MOF. The Japanese financial markets are open today and tomorrow, but they are much less active than normal due to Golden week.
EUR/USD traded in a 5 pip range for the first 5 hours and hasn’t done much since. Cable traded 1.6225/40 and EUR/CHF looked normal for a change with its 5 pip range!
