Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Thursday 18 January 2018

There was plenty of news and data today. It kicked off with oil stockpile data from the US for the most recent week, showing a larger than expected draw and another support point for the oil price.

On to forex - we had comments following from Federal Reserve officials, Mester, Evans, Kaplan at various talks, Q&A's and pressers. While there was disagreement on the expected pace of rate hikes between them there was agreement the economy is performing well; and none of it slowed the gains for the USD. It was a solid session for the USD, with gains in late North America trade carrying on into early Asia and then some sideways since then without much of a retrace at all.

Later, the Australian dollar managed a pop in response to better than expected jobs data (jobs data beat again) but the higher AUD/USD was not sustained and as I update its net down a little but above its lows. NZD/USD followed a similar pattern.

After the Bank of Canada announcement Wednesday US time the CAD did little here in Asia today.

USD/JPY has managed to hold onto its gains and is on its session high as I update. Its worth checking out the bullet above on remarks reported from unnamed BOJ officials. There does seem to be movement being contemplated for policy ... but not yet.

Cable and USD/CHF are both little changed after their weakness in the US afternoon.

Bitcoin had a notable move - a USD2,000-odd bounce. Which is a bit of a change for it from recent days and is likely indicative of some stability present, at least for now. We'll see. More ban/regulate chatter from South Korea again today, but the 'boy who cried wolf' effect seems to be once again taking hold. A lot of talk, but not action forthcoming as yet.

ps. Stay tuned for the China data due at 0700 GMT: