I had the pleasure of covering Asia-Pacific trading yesterday because Eamonn was on holiday (it was Respect for the Aged day in Japan after all).
The main theme in early trading was worries about China and that pulled down the Australian dollar, oil and added a bid to the yen. Here’s what I wrote in the wrap:
In general, the shape of trading is always the same as fear from China begins to percolate. Europe tends to latch on to the theme from Asia but by the time the stories get to the US, they tend to get stale and American traders begin to focus on the strength in the domestic economy and the trade begins to reverse.
What happened:
AUD/USD hit a session low of 0.8985 early in European trading and then began to recovery before hitting 0.9049 in US trading. Oil bottomed at $90.79 a bit earlier but stayed near the bottom until US traders arrived and bid it up to $93.00. Only the yen remained bid but it was a tight range overall in USD/JPY.
In US trading there was hardly a peep about weakness in China as all the focus shifted to the Fed and Scottish referendum.
In the long-term, it probably tells you that US traders will be caught off guard when the eventual Chinese troubles hit. In the short-term, keep in mind that US traders love to fade Chinese worries.
