The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Wednesday August 21, 2013.
- Japan to raise severity of latest Fukushima leak to level 3 (‘serious’ radiation ‘incident’) on international scale
- More comments today from BOJ governor Kuroda, reported in Mainichi Shimbun newspaper
- Kuroda says would not hesitate to adjust policy if downside risks from sales tax hike or overseas economies increase
- He hopes Japanese government takes firm steps towards fiscal discipline
- Doesn’t expect economy to slow if sales tax raised as scheduled
- New Zealand Skilled job vacancies rose 7.5% in July
- New Zealand Net Migration for July: +1980 (vs. prior +2330) – correlation between migration and the NZD
- Westpac/Melbourne Institute leading index for June comes in flat at 0.0% m/m (vs. prior of +0.2%)
- Australia DEEWR Skilled Vacancies for July +0.7% m/m (vs. prior of +0.3%)
- New Zealand credit card spending data for July
- For the m/m: +0.3% (vs. prior was 2.6%)
- For the y/y: +4.7% (vs. prior was 5.4%)
- China Conference Board July leading economic index up 1.4% to 267.3
- Overseas private-equity firms dipping their toes into China residential real estate again
- Morgan Stanley analysts say Abe to raise sales tax in increments
USD/JPY strengthened a little in the morning session, trading up to 97.50, with the market taking some comfort from Kuroda’s comments (see bullets above). The breaking news of the worsening of the Fukushima nuclear leak saw the Nikkei get sold heavily, USD/JPY coming off too to 97.10/15.
NZD and AUD both lost ground again today, with persistent, if quiet selling prevailing. Both fell below overnight lows, but didn’t collapse from there with bids ahead of 0.7900 and 0.9000 stemming the losses.
EUR, CHF and GBP were quiet (again). The CAD lost ground with its Commonwealth buddies across the Pacific.
