- M5.6 earthquake 39 km ESE of Rancagua, Chile
- ICYMI - Goldman Sachs cut its forecast for China GDP
- AUD/USD little changed after the jobs miss (but jobless rate beat!)
- US diplomat top Kritenbrink comments on Taiwan, China - US does not seek a crisis
- Australia July jobs -40.9K (expected +25K) & Unemployment rate 3.4% (expected 3.5%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.7802 (vs. estimate at 6.7789)
- US and Taiwan will commence formal negotiation on trade agreement
- Nomura slash their China 2022 GDP forecast even further.
- Germany - eyes on the Rhine river water level, relief seen this weekend
- ICYMI - Russia's earnings from energy exports this year up 38% on 2021
- BlackRock are both overweight and underweight equities
- Reuters survey show more wage hikes in Japan
- Scotia expect a stronger yuan in the weeks ahead - forecast
- Chinese financial media reports potential for CNY 1.5 tn debt issuance to fund investment
- "PBOC has limited room to ease due to concerns over inflation, capital flight"
- ICYMI - OPEC's Al Ghais forecasts global oil demand rising 3 mn barrels / day by year end
- RBNZ's Governor Orr says at times monetary policy was overly loose
- Societe Generale likes AUD vs GBP as a long-term trade
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday, 18 August 2022
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US consumer holds up. USD initially slumps on Fed minutes
- S&P closes lower for the 1st time in 3 days.
Major FX rates pretty much marked time in the post FOMC minutes session here today.
Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Orr gave testimony in parliament. He acknowledged and apologised for keeping policy rates too low for too long. Looking ahead Orr gave no indication of lower rates ahead, but did indicate the country was getting on top of inflation.
After Orr the focus was on the Australian jobs report. The twin headlines to the data showed net job losses on the month and a contrasting lower rate of unemployment. See the bullet points above for more but the quick explanation is a lower participation rate. The report showed:
- the labour market remains incredibly tight, there are more job vacancies than people unemployed
- a 48 year low for the unemployment rate
- the fall in hours worked in the month is likely due to a combination of school holidays and absence from work due to both COVID and flu
I suspect more volatility in the employment reports in the months ahead.
Major FX rate movement has been small. AUD/USD lost a few points after the jobs report, but NZD, EUR, GBP all fell against the USD around the same time (in very small ranges).
USD/JPY straddled 135.00 during the session.
Oil ticked a little higher:
