Forex news for Asia trading Monday 15 December 2014
- New Zealand November Services PMI: 54.8 (prior was 57.0)
- Shanghai Securities News reports Goldman’s Ha sees further policy easing in China
- Bank of Japan Q4 Tankan report
- Australia data – New Vehicle Sales for November: -0.6% (-1.8% prior)
- UK data – Rightmove House Price Index for December: -3.3%% m/m (prior was -1.7%)
- Moody’s: Lower milk prices a credit negative for New Zealand banks
- People’s Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at strongest since February 20, 2014
- RBNZ announces new weighting for the NZ dollar trade-weighted index
- Australia – MYEFO out now – 2014-15 deficit seen at $40.4b vs $29.8b
- S&P says Australia’s AAA rating and outlook isn’t immediately affected by government’s mid-year budget update
USD/JPY and oil were both sold at their respective opens today.
The yen strengthened in the wake of Japanese PM’s strong victory in the election, losing around 100 points from Friday’s closing level … but bouncing back strongly from the Tokyo open to recover its losses, and more. Yen crosses traded in a similar pattern.
Oil followed a similar sort of pattern to USD/JPY, trading lower from its open but bouncing back too. There was some news over the weekend on oil, here and here.
EUR/USD and GBP/USD ticked higher in the early going but gave back much of their gains as the session progressed.
AUD and NZD both slipped on the session also.
Further news today – a criminal incident in the centre of Sydney, Australia, with at least one armed coward taking hostages of innocent people in a Sydney cafe. The situation continues to unfold and is yet to be resolved. Since the situation began (at around 9.45am Sydney time this morning) there has been little news on it and, apparently, little progress towards resolution (it appears 3 people at least are out of the building and maybe even the cafe itself). The Reserve Bank of Australia Sydney headquarters is literally only metres from the cafe (abut 60 metres). While some staff have been evacuated, essential operations continue as normal.
