Forex trading headlines for Asia Tuesday 13 May 2014
- ANZ Truckometer (Heavy) for April: +0.5% m/m (prior was -1.0% m/m)
- New Zealand Food price index for April +0.6% m/m
- UK data – BRC April retail like-for-like sales: +4.2% y/y (vs. expected is +1.6%)
- Japan – Money Stock M2 for April: 3.4% y/y (expected +3.4%)
- Japan – Money Stock M3 for April: 2.8% y/y (expected is +2.8%)
- Australia – March Home loans: -0.9% m/m (vs. expected is +1.0%) (plus more data on Australian housing finance and prices)
- US Treasury Secretary Lew: China should make its exchange rate policy more transparent
- Coming up during the London session: What time is the Australian budget on Tuesday? A preview of what to look for & how it will impact on the $A
The yen continued to weaken (though only a very little) in Asia today, knocking on the door of overnight highs and ticking marginally better to around 102.25.
The Nikkei traded higher too, benefiting from Wall Street strength on Monday.
GBP/USD quietly drifted a very small higher and then moved up to test 1.6880 and just above. Dealer chatter was of some GBP/JPY buying going through, and in the absence of anything on the wires to account for the better bid tone this seems logical. The cable outperformance didn’t extend, though, it drifted back and has stabilised as of writing.
Yen cross buying was also noted as contributing to the slightly better tone in the NZD … but again the moves were very small indeed.
AUD/USD, on the other hand, was slightly offered, basically sitting near its overnight lows for most of the session.
EUR/USD was more-or-less a flat line, a slight and unsustained tick above 1.3760 notwithstanding.
