- UK RICS house prices rise for the first time in over 2 years.
- GBP buying on the back of the RICS data.
- NZ Q2 manufacturing sales +1.8%.
- Australia Q2 housing starts falls 3.7%.
- RBA minutes: less hawkish than expected.
- AUDUSD drifts off after RBA minutes and worse than expected housing starts.
- Summers says not imposing duties on Tires would have been an “abduction of responsibility”.
- Japan’sYosano: sudden currency moves unwelcome.
- China says tire tarrifs are an abuse of WTO safeguard measures.
- Asian Bourses slightly higher in lacklustre trade.
- Gold trades below 1000, last at 998.50.
Good RICS data out of the UK saw GBP bought and helped push “risk” assets higher, especially against the Yen. The early morning saw GBPJPY trade from 150.60 up to 151.40 and in turn sparked EURJPY buying and broad USD weakness.
Demand was high for USDJPY heading into the Tokyo fix and stayed that way post fix. US dollar turned and strenthened across the board and the EURUSD saw a drift off from its highs back below the NY closing level. However, Bids just below 1.4600 helped it stay range bound. EURJPY managed to stay above 133.00 on the back of strong USDJPY demand throughout the day.
Intraday offers towards 8640 capped the AUDUSD and saw it drift off after less than impressive housing starts numbers were reported and less hawkish than expected RBA minutes were released. AUDUSD drifted back below 86c but remained bid ahead of buyers at 8580 for a push back up above 8600.
Ranges:
EURUSD 1.4602 – 1.4646
GBPUSD 1.6569 – 1.6628
USDJPY 90.77 – 91.21
EURJPY 132.77 – 133.33
AUDUSD 8586 – 8639
Goodluck,
Sam
