Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 3 August 2017
- Continue focus on fiscal reform, economic revival - Aso
- S&P says more risk to Australia sovereign rating than in past
- Bank of England MPC meeting today - 5 previews (all in one place)
- Australia - Reserve Bank of Australia Statement due tomorrow - preview
- Australia trade balance - analyst assessments coming now
- Australian retail sales data due tomorrow - preview
- Moody's on Australian investment home loans vs. owner-occupied
- Japan - new govmt policy head says Abenomics has achieved results
- China July PMIs - Caixin Services 51.5 (prior 51.6) & Composite 51.9 (prior 51.1)
- Australia Trade balance June: +AUD 856m (expected +AUD1800m)
- People’s Bank of China sets yuan reference rate at 6.7211 (vs. yesterday at 6.7205)
- New Zealand - ANZ commodity price index (July): -0.8% m/m (prior +2.1%)
- AUD/USD still slipping
- Fitch on Australian mortgage arrears - appears stable despite Q1 uptick
- Japan - Nikkei/Markit July PMIs: Services 52.0 (prior 53.3 ) & Composite 51.8 (prior 52.9)
- Citi with quick thoughts on the Bank of England meeting
- Australia - Services PMI for July: 56.4 (prior 54.8)
- Brazil's President Temer wins votes in lower house to block corruption charge
- Gold lower - stops triggered in thin early Asia trade
- EUR/USD "closing in on our advocated target ... appears to be a bit overstretched"
- Australia - July PMI CBA/Markit Composite 56.7 (prior 57.2) & Services 57.0 (prior 57.0)
- Goldman Sachs more bullish on the Japan economy, and their USD/JPY forecast
- US overnight 'Fedspeak' - there was one the market appears to have missed
- Australian June trade balance due 0130GMT - previews (& a 'wild card')
- New Zealand - ANZ Job Ads for July: -1.0% m/m (prior +1.3%)
- Goldman Sachs Bank of England preview (spoiler - unchanged, but ...)
- ICYMI: Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: EURUSD cracks 1.1900 but backs off
- More from Fed's Williams: Sees one more rate hike this year (3 likely the next)
- BoE meet today - a (technical) look at GBP ahead of Carney and Co.
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 3 August 2017
- Economic data due from Asia today - Australia and China focus
- Fed's Rosengren: Tight Labor Markets Justify Fed Plans to Keep Raising Rates
The Australian dollar was a loser today, lower ahead of the trade balance data. The data came in at quite a miss:
AUD/USD was above 0.7960 in late US time and had a small, but steady, drift down to under 0.7920 before stabilising somewhat. It wasn't only the AUD though, CAD and NZD both lost against the USD.
USD/JPY traded a 20-odd point range, finding sellers above 110.80 and then steadying a little from circa 110.60. A small range with little to drive it news nor data wise today.
EUR/USD had slid a few points lower, with an even narrower range than USD/JPY. USD/CHF is very little changed.
Cable is treading water ahead of the Bank of England announcement during the London morning, its had a 20-odd point range from just over 1.3230 to just under 1.3210.
Gold was a mover early in Asia - it saw some selling in the thinner liquidity pre-HK trading time. Some stop losses were triggered for a sharp move lower and a nearly equally sharp bounce once done. Its net still a little lower on the session around 1262 as I update.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei -0.35%
- Shanghai -0.24%
- HK -0.10%
- ASX -0.28%
Still to come: Bank of England MPC meeting today - 5 previews (all in one place)
