Forex news for Asia-Pacific trading on August 20, 2021:
- PBOC one-year loan prime rate 3.85% vs 3.85% expected
- New Zealand national lockdown extended to August 24 but all cases now appear to be linked
- New Zealand reports 11 new covid cases today including 3 in Wellington
- Japan national headline CPI for July 2021 -0.3% y/y vs. expected +0.6%
- ANZ pushes back Australia rate hike forecast by six months
- Australia's New South Wales reports another 642 locally-acquired covid cases
- Three vaccinated US Senators test positive for covid
- RBA's Kent stresses the importance of the global FX code and highlights changes
- UK GfK consumer confidence -8 vs -7 expected
- Powell's Jackson Hole speech is set for Aug 27
Markets:
- Gold up $4 to $1784
- US 10-year yields down 0.4 bps to 1.238%
- Nikkei 225 down 0.5%
- WTI crude oil up 40-cents to $64.09
- CHF leads, CAD lags
The selling in commodity currencies and the pound ebbed early in Asia-Pacific trading and there was some dip buying but after the PBOC failed to deliver a cut in the LPR (it was a bit of a Hail Mary) then the selling resumed.
CAD continues to take an absolute beating as USD/CAD rose another 29 pips to 1.2853, wiping out the entire year's move.
Earlier, the mystery bid at the start of Tokyo trade arrived once again. That took the pair higher by 15 pips in fairly short order before the bulls bailed in the risk wobble after the PBOC.
New Zealand news didn't sound great at first with 11 new cases, including 3 in Wellington, but officials said they're all linked so there's still some hope of getting it under control, even with the nationwide lockdown extended through Tuesday. There's been some mild NZD buying since the announcements. At the same time, outbreak there is a real-world example of just how powerful delta is. Another example of that as three US Senators announcing today that they have covid, despite being vaccinated.
The main mood today is consolidating the huge moves from Thursday. So far there are no signs of any kind of substantial bounce, and that's about what you would expect on a Friday.
Meanwhile, the reflation debate is on the backburner but the dismal CPI numbers out of Japan show that at least in one part of the world there's no need for rate hikes any time on the horizon.
