Forex news for the early part of Tokyo trade on December 8, 2020:
- Japan Q3 final GDP q/q annualized +22.9% vs +21.4% expected
- Japanese October household spending +1.9% y/y vs +2.8% expected
- Dec Japan Reuters Tankan manufacturing -9 vs -13 prior
- Nishimura: Continuing to see capex weakness in GDP figures
- Australia Nov NAB business conditions +9 vs +1 prior
- India reports the fewest new daily covid cases since July 10
- UK Nov BRC retail sales like-for-like +7.7% y/y vs +5.2% prior
- Japan October trade balance Y 971.1B (expected Y 1082.8B)
- ANZ Australia Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence 109.3 vs 107.5
Markets:
- Gold up $6 to $1869
- Nikkei 225 -0.2%
- Japan 10-year yields down 2 bps to 0.635%
- AUD leads, GBP lags
Boris is heading to Brussels in what will be the dominant story in the day ahead. Asian traders were more-nervous in the lead-up with sterling sliding back to 1.3350 after tagging 1.3400 late in US trade.
The tone overall was modestly constructive with commodity currencies making some minor headway after an up-and-down start to the week.
Markets haven't really latched onto a theme this week as we wait for action on Brexit, the ECB, US stimulus and the virus. One story that got some movement from equity futures was that the US may not get more of the Pfizer vaccine until June or July after an initial batch to vaccinate 50m Americans. Trump plans an executive order to get more supply that's headed overseas but the US declined to put in a larger order in June.
Gold continues to do well and Bitcoin is hanging around near the record high.
Today's Japanese data was positive and we're still waiting on more details of today's Japanese stimulus package. For all that, the yen has hardly moved.
