Forex trading headlines for Asia Thursday 12 June 2014
All the RBNZ news today:
- Reserve Bank of New Zealand hikes rates 25 basis points
- RBNZ’s Wheeler: Says we still see inflation pressures
- RBNZ’s Wheeler: Declines to comment on possible intervention in the NZD
- More from RBNZ’s Wheeler: Nobody is forecasting China economy to grow less than 6-7% (includes Westpac’s response)
- ASB forecasts the RBNZ will raise rates again in July
- RBNZ decision to hike – ANZ reaction and what they expect now
- More analyst reaction to the RBNZ rate hike today – and what’s still to come
- RBNZ’s Wheeler – Speaking to parliament committee now
- “The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is now projecting a slightly more gradual run of increases than anticipated in March”
Other:
- Japan to cut corporate tax to below 30%
- UK data – RICS House Price Balance for May 57 % (expected 52%)
- Japan April Machinery Orders: -9.1% m/m (vs. expected -10.8%)
- Australia Employment Change for May: -4.8K (vs. expected 10.0K) – the headline was worse than expected but tempered by a big increase in full-time jobs
- Head of Japan GPIF advisory panel says the fund should review its portfolio by September, shift its portfolio more towards stocks and away from yen bonds
The big mover today was the New Zealand dollar, which dipped very briefly after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand raised the official cash rate by a well-telegraphed and very widely expected 25 basis points before shooting above 0.8600. It consolidated the gain, not dropping back below the figure throughout digestion of the statement and Governor Wheeler’s press conference. A few hours later as Tokyo markets opened and Wheeler appeared before a parliamentary committee, the kiwi dollar started another leg of its day’s climb, gaining to test near 0.8645/50 before settling just below 0.8640 and is now largely sideways as I write. Throughout his comments Wheeler sounded like a man keen on continuing to hike rates, (see bullets, above for more detail) .
The Australian dollar rallied with the kiwi initially but within about half an hour had given back all its gains (it got briefly above 0.9410) to settle back around 0.9380. The employment report that followed a few hours later saw the oz dip on the initial headline but then recover and settle almost where it was prior to the data, just a fraction under. As I type it has lost a few more points to be under 0.9375.
USD/JPY ticked a little higher from just under 102 through the Tokyo morning session to above 102.10 early in the afternoon, but the range was narrow.
GBP/USD and EUR/USD gained a small amount of ground, Cable grinding it out towards 1.6800 while EUR/USD picked up from around 1.3532 to around 45 … yep, a tight range for these also.
USD/CAD barely troubled the scorekeepers, with around a 10 point range on the session.
