Forex trading headlines for Asia Wednesday 6 August 2014
- Federal Reserve Fisher: Says FOMC is ‘coming in my direction’
- All the New Zealand Q2 employment data – unemployment rate to lowest in 5 years
- UK data – British Retail Consortium (BRC) Shop Price Index: -1.9 % y/y (vs. expected -1.6%)
- UK data – British Retail Consortium (BRC) Shop Price Index: -1.9 % y/y (vs. expected -1.6%)
- ASB have revised their 2014/15 NZ milk payout forecast to NZ$5.80
- Egypt plans to build a new channel parallel to the Suez Canal to boost capacity
The NZD continued its overnight sogginess in Asia today after the weak dairy autcion. It was employment data day in New Zealand, which only comes once a quarter, but even a lower than expected unemployment rate result didn’t help the currency. It popped on the release but was instantly smashed down again. It stabilsed after near its session lows, above 0.8425.
Japanese stocks were a big mover also – lower after a weak session on US equity markets, but the fall gathered pace with news that Sprint Corp has abandoned its plans to acquire T-Mobile. Softbank shares, which are around an almost 5% weighting in the Nikkei 225, fell heavily – down about 3.5% as I write.
AUD/USD was relatively subdued, a little heavy and indeed breaking the overnight low; but the range on the session was barely 15 points.
GBP/USD entered early Asia near session highs, and then backed off 15-odd points. Private sector retail inflation data came in at its weakest reading ever (see bullets, above).
EUR/USD and EUR/JPY weakened. USD/JPY is near session lows (in a small range) as I write.
Gold steadily gained a little more than a couple of dollars through the session. Oil was basically flat.
CAD traders, sorry, not a lot going on during the session, and another 15 or so point range.
