Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Monday 12 February 2018
Monday:
- The US dollar is off to a slow start this week
- Asian equities beginning to pick up some steam
- SG says euro still has some room to rally ... where to target EUR/USD buy orders
- Nvidia has a "good" problem on its hands
- Wassup? Oil, gold, EUR, AUD, stocks ...
- UK press - Bitcoin hackers hijack thousands of government computers for mining
- UBS on what'll take for a new central bank put in equities
- More detail on China wanting to 'cool' bitcoin investment
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.3001 (vs. Friday at 6.3194)
- Large option contracts for expiry Monday 12 February 2018
- Stay tuned for Australian business conditions & confidence data due Tuesday
- China (People's Daily): Necessary for China to cool bitcoin investment
- Australia - Credit Card purchases and balances for December data
- UK data from Visa - spending in January fell for the first time since 2013
- Japan PM Abe has decided to on Kuroda for second term as BOJ governor (source)
- FT front page - Bridgewater “We'll probably have a much bigger shakeout coming"
- Goldman Sachs on equities - genuine regime change, sell the rallies, don't buy the dips
- Barclays' trade for the week ahead is short NZD/JPY (entry, stop, target)
- Asian markets open (and on closed) today. (Spoiler - Japan holiday)
- Italian cryptocurrency exchange suspending withdrawals and deposits - hack fears
- New Zealand - Card Spending for January: Retail +1.4% m/m (expected +0.5%)
- ECB’s Nowotny says ECB concerned about US political influence on exchange rates
- China credit data for January expected to surge - preview
- Trade ideas thread – Monday 12 February 2018
- Weekend Canada - PM Trudeau says still a “clear path” to a NAFTA deal
- Economic calendar due from Asia today - a light one to begin the new week
- 6 speeches coming up from the UK - setting out the 'Road to Brexit'
- IMF MD on market volatility & asks question on next crisis .... cryptocurrencies?
- A little bit of Merkel for your weekend - defending coalition deal
- W/e: BOE chief economist says rate hikes coming, but "no rush"
- Weekend cryptocurrency: FX giant UAE Exchange signs Ripple for international payments
- Welcome to Monday morning - FX rates early indications
Weekend:
- Video: The five big 20th century problems are solved
- After last week, the US dollar is no longer the worst performer in 2018
- UK Labour leader Corbyn calls for 'radical' shift in economy, including nationalization
- It might be the worst week in stocks since Jan 2016, but it could have been worse
Risk had a better session here in Asia today, following on Friday's late US stock rally. There was the odd piece of news and data over the weekend and during the day here, but nothing of too much market-moving significance at all. Nevertheless, regional stocks and some currency rallies ensured.
EUR/USD has had a small rally since the opening levels, from sub 1.2250 lows to just above 1.2280 as I update. USD/JPY is currently in more or less in the middle of its circa 108.60/95 range while EUR/JPY is on its session high.
AUD/USD, too, is pretty close to its session high. It was helped along earlier by AUD/NZD (macro fund) buying, but NZD/USD coming in with a bid after this has seen the kiwi do a bit of a catch up.
It was a Japanese market holiday today (reopen on Tuesday) which kept cash market UST trading thin - US 10yr futures slipped just a little. There will likely be a little more to come on this with reports surfacing detailing the US budget (announcement due Monday US time) - bigly spending more and more deficit upcoming. Hardly surprising. Trump's budget director Mick Mulvaney was on Fox on Sunday, saying the U.S. will post a larger budget deficit this year, which could "spike" interest rates as a result.
The volatility might have taken a breather in Asia today, but it looks set to return very soon indeed.