The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Friday August 30, 2013
- British PM Cameron lost the vote on military action in Syria
- Cameron then vowed not to override parliament on Syria military action
- British Defence Sec. Hammond then said the UK will not take part in military action against Syria, but that he expects military action against Syria will go ahead despite Britain dropping out
- More here
- The White House said it is aware of British vote on Syria, Obama’s decision-making will be guided by best interests of US
- China foreign minister made a very sensible point, saying there should be no UN Security Council action on Syria before the chemical probe is complete
Some encouraging data from Japan, & some not quite so encouraging:
- Japan- Markit/JMMA Manufacturing PMI for August: 52.2 (vs. prior 50.7)
- Japan Overall Household Spending y/y for July: 0.1% (vs. expected 0.3%)
- Japan Jobless Rate for July: 3.8% (vs. expected 3.9%)
- Japan Job-To-Applicant Ratio for July: 0.94 (vs. expected is 0.93)
- Japan National CPI y/y for July: 0.7% (vs. expected 0.7%)
- Japan National CPI y/y excluding Fresh Food for July: 0.7% (vs. expected 0.6%)
- Japan National CPI excluding Food, Energy y/y for July: -0.1% (vs. expected -0.2%)
- Tokyo CPI y/y for August: 0.5% (vs.expected 0.5%)
- Tokyo CPI excluding Fresh Food y/y for August: 0.4% (vs. expected 0.4%)
- Tokyo CPI excluding Food, Energy y/y for August:-0.4% (vs.expected -0.3%)
- Japan Industrial Production for July (preliminary reading): 3.2% m/m (vs. expected 3.6%)
- Industrial Production for July (preliminary): 1.6% y/y (vs. expected 1.8%)
- Japan’s economy minister Amari said this economic data are a positive sign for the sales tax hike debate
- And Japan’s finance minister Aso added that if the sales tax is not raised, Japan fiscal reform may be doubted, and that the data show a favourable trend for sales tax hike (more)
- UK data – GfK Consumer Confidence for August: -13 (vs. expected at -14)
- Bank of England’s Carney: Will provide stimulus until economy has reached self-sustaining growth
- New Zealand July Building Consents (permits): -0.8% m/m (vs. expected at +1.3%)
- MNI China Business Indicator to 58.0 in August from 53.4 in July
- Australia Private Sector Credit for July: +0.4% m/m (vs. expected 0.4%)
- Australia Private Sector Credit for July: 3.2% y/y (vs. expected 3.1%)
- Japanese fund managers lift euro zone bond weightings to highest in 10 months
Month-end brought small ranges in the Asian time zone today.
News from the UK that PM Cameron failed to get parliamentary support for Britain to join the likely attack on Syria (see bullets, above) had little impact on cable, though it did tick 20 points higher later in the session.
EUR/USD, too, spent much of the session stonefaced and unmoving, but it, too, ticked just a little higher.
USD/CHF, for its part, lost 15-odd points.
USD/JPY had a quiet morning, barely responding to the overall better data coming out of Japan (see plethora of bullets, above). The better data, though, did prompt Amari and Aso (you guessed it, see bullets above) to comment to reporters that the signs of improvement in the Japanese economy supported the case for a sales tax hike in its current format. The Nikkei got sold off on these comments, USD/JPY dipping 30-odd points with it.
NZD/USD and AUD/USD had a relatively quiet session, both dipped below US lows in the early going, and both recovered somewhat in a small range to test their US highs.
