Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Tuesday 6 March 2018
Posting the wrap a little early to clear the decks ahead of the RBA! Coming up at 0330 GMT; for previews ... scroll to the bottom of the post
- RBA due soon. Thinking out loud ... data flow lacklustre ... room for RBA to act?
- 2IC at NDRC says China to significantly widen market access for foreign investors
- Australia Q4 GDP due 7 March - preview taking into account the poor data
- China NDRC head says 2017 GDP growth steady, target for 2018 achievable
- Currencies continue to gain as tariff fears recede
- FX option expiries for Tuesday 6 March 2018 - 10am NY cut
- US President Trump to meet with steel, aluminium consumer firms
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.3386 (vs. yesterday at 6.3431)
- Canada PM 'forcefully defends' Canadian interests re US steel tariff proposals
- Australian dollar responds to the data dump ...
- Australia January Retail Sales +0.1% m/m (vs. expected +0.4% m/m)
- Australia BoP Current Account balance for Q4: AUD -14.0bn
- Australia Q4 Net exports as a % of GDP: -0.50% (expected -0.60%)
- USD/JPY continues its climb in early Tokyo trade
- AUD traders - heads up for the huge data dump due bottom of the hour
- More UK (Feb) spending data - Barclaycard data slightly lower than in January
- UK data - BRC Like-For-Like Retail Sales 0.6% y/y (expected 0.5%)
- Heads up for NZD traders - Global Dairy Trade auction coming up during London time today
- Updated AUD view from Westpac - targets to look out for
- Elliot wave technical analysis of EUR/USD (via Goldman Sachs)
- China press reports PBOC to be more flexible on monetary policy this year
- Australia data - weekly consumer confidence to 119.0 (from prior 117.9)
- Plenty coming up from Australia today -previews and levels of interest for the AUD
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Stock market ignores tariff but not the CAD
- Trump's NAFTA tariff strategy crystalized
- Preview of today’s RBA meeting, what to expect from the statement
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 6 March 2018
- US trade rep - US tariffs are an incentive to Canada & Mexico to conclude NAFTA
- Australian retail sales data for January due 0030 GMT - preview
- Oil - OPEC's Barkindo says OPEC/non-OPEC alliance open to all producers
- Canada foreign minister comments on NAFTA, tariffs
- US stocks close with >1% gains today.
- Australia data preview - Q4 net exports due 0030 GMT
- Mexican economy minister remarks on NAFTA negotiations
- Australia data preview - Q4 current account due 0030 GMT
- US Trade Rep Lighthizer: We haven't made progress that many had hoped
- Economic calendar due from Asia – Reserve Bank of Australia day
Small forex movement in Asia today (ranges around normal for an Asian session anyway ... we take what we're given, right?).
On the data front the main focus was Australia, with plenty of GDP inputs for Q4 (balance of payments, net exports, government spending). Trade performance for Q4 will be a negative for the Q4 GDP (data will be published Wednesday 7 March at 0030 GMT), it came in poor today (not quite so poor as expected, but not good). Trade was a weight on the BoP current account, it hit its largest since Q3 of 2016.
If there was a sliver of OK news (ps. I'm still getting to the monthly data, retail sales was another bad miss .... but bear with me while I try to post something a bit more positive ... ;-) ) it was the government expenditure data for Q4 (oh ... austeriscists, look away)
- Government spending up 1.7% q/q (prior +0.2% in Q3)
- Public investment up 2.9% q/q
Stay tuned for the Reserve Bank of Australia decision and announcement, due at 0330 GMT
- Expectations are for no change to the cash rate, and thus the focus will be on the Statement
Elsewhere news and data flow was light. There was a bit of to and fro on US trade tariff news. Currencies carried on their overnight moves (not too far, of course) on chatter that the proposed tariffs may not take effect. I don't know about that, but that's the chatter anyway.
USD/JPY added 20 odd points, to above 106.40. EUR/USD managed above 1.2360. Cable was a bit lacklustre, little net change. USD/CAD is also little changed (after a wobble or two). AUD/USD is up on the session while NZD/USD remains below its overnight high (ps. GDT auction coming up today)
Still to come:
