- ANZ: Australian labour market will remain very tight, see solid jobs growth in February
- Poll of analysts paints a mixed picture of what's to come from the European Central Bank
- Japan’s Lower House to hold confirmation hearing for BOJ governor, deputies on Feb 24
- JP Morgan's Kolanovic warns of "Volmageddon" 2.0 options risk
- China's President Xi says expanding industrial, investment cooperation with Asia
- Australian Treasurer Chalmers to speak on the jobs report soon
- China January House Prices flat at 0.0% m/m (prior -0.25%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.8519 (vs. estimate at 6.5824)
- AUD/USD lower after the January employment report showed jobs down, unemployment rate up
- Australia January Employment change -11.5K (expected +20K) Unemployment rate 3.7% (3.5%)
- Australian Consumer Inflation Expectations survey for February 5.1% (prior 5.6%)
- KiwiBank says the RBNZ should pause its rate hikes, citing national state of emergency
- Japan January Trade Balance -3,496.6bn yen (vs. expected -3976.7bn yen, prior -1,448.5bnB)
- Japan December Core Machinery Orders +1.6% m/m (vs. expected 2.8%, prior -8.3%)
- UK CPI data was well below expectations - Bank of England rate hike implications
- Standard Chartered have revised their peak Federal Reserve rate higher, now expect 5.25%
- ICYMI - Goldman Sachs cut their US recession probability, to 25% (from 35%)
- CME says it will expand its suite of event contracts to include Bitcoin futures
- Citi is bearish AUD/USD, targeting to resell circa 0.6970-90
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Retail sales roar and meme stocks sizzle
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday, 16 February 2023
The USD has lost ground for the session pretty much across the majors board, but FX performance has been mixed. EUR and yen have performed better than AUD and NZD, for example. There was little fresh news flow, but we did get data points.
AUD/USD shuddered lower after a big miss on the January labour market report. Jobs were lost for a second month in a row and the unemployment rate rose to its highest since May last year. It does seem there were some seasonal factors unaccounted for (see the ANZ post above, analysts there expect a solid bounce back for employment in the next report). NZD/USD traded down with the AUD. While in New Zealand, there are calls for a pause from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand at its February 22 meeting due to the cyclone national disaster in the country that has cause fatalities and widespread damage.
The weaker USD has contributed to a bounce back for both the Australian and New Zealand dollar.
Japanese trade data, for January, showed the largest merchandise trade deficit ever.
China’s President Xi outlined plans to increase industrial and investment cooperation with Asia.
Asian equity markets:
Japan’s Nikkei 225 +0.7%
China’s Shanghai Composite +0.8%
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng +2.2%
South Korea’s KOSPI +1.9%
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.8%
