Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 29 January 2015
- Australian iron ore miners benefitting at expense of higher cost suppliers
- RBNZ sold net NZ$16 million in December
- “Momentum trading to offer best foreign exchange returns in 2015″
- Reuters poll: 11 of 15 economists see no RBNZ rate move before Q1 2016
- Fonterra: Reduced its milk volume forecast for the 2014-15 season
- Australia – export and import price indices for Q4
- 5 takeaways from the FOMC meeting
- Japan Buying Foreign Bonds, Y 45.6B (plus, the rest of this data)
- Japan Retail sales for December: -0.3% m/m (expected +0.3%)
- “Rate cut bets soar as RBA shifts expectations”
- RBA rate cut on Tuesday? It might ignite the property market again
- New Zealand Trade balance for December: -159m (vs. expected 75m)
- Australian press: RBA ” will almost certainly” cut rates next week
- RBNZ: Expects to keep rates on hold for some time, jawbones on NZD
The early part of the session saw a lower NZD and AUD, with the policy meeting from the RBNZ resulting in a move away from their hawkish bias and more response to an overnight article in the Australian press saying an RBA rate hike next week is almost certain (even though it isn’t).
AUD and NZD barely recovered throughout the course of the rest of the session, and the AUD/USD is right on session lows as I complete the wrap. markets are now pricing in a circa 60% probability of an RBA rate cut on Tuesday.
USD/CHF traded higher during the day, up just more than 70 points from earlier lows. EUR/USD and GBP/USD both ticked a little higher, but not by much at all and both are at session lows (below earlier lows) (as of writing).
USD/JPY (and the Nikeei) are both higher, USD/JPY testing above 118.00 before stabilising just below. EUR/JPY net benefited on the day from the USD/JPY dragging it up.
Oil ticked a little higher, while gold lost just a few dollars.