Forex trading headlines for Asia Monday 24 February 2014
Weekend:
- Moody’s upgrades Spain Government bond rating to Baa2 (from Baa3), assigns positive outlook
- Survey shows economists expect Bank of Japan to ease policy further by summer
- BOJ: Kuroda Warns of ‘Critical Problems’ Without Fiscal Overhaul
- Ukraine latest: Yanukovich barred from trying to leave for Russia
- G20 final communique: Looking for faster growth rate
- China’s fin min says US tapering is good for Chinese economy
- Ukrainian parliament votes to temporarily hand over presidential duties to Turchinov
- Ukraine: Merkel and Putin agreed that they have a joint interest in stability
- Weekend Draghi: Signalled March policy meeting could be critical
Monday:
- New Zealand rate rise risks increasing the value of the NZ dollar
- Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade accord began talks in Singapore on Saturday
- China Securities Journal: Era of strong property investment growth has probably come to an end
- World’s biggest sovereign wealth fund is looking to more than double the number of portfolio managers
- China – January new home prices +9.6% y/y (vs. +9.9% in December)
- New Zealand Credit card spending, January: +1.0% m/m (vs. prior was -0.7%)
- Japan PM Abe: GPIF must find way to manage funds flexibly, diversely
There was a bit of activity today in yen, AUD and NZD (EUR,GBP and CHF were all a little quiet). Even USD/CAD got in on the action.
USD/JPY started off with a little strength but fell away quite hard from 102.65 dsown to below 102.25. The Nikkei was a driver, as is often the case, but USD/JPY lost ground more readily than it gained.
AUD/USD ground its way higher in the early going, but ran into resistance again ahead of 0.8990, and lost ground rapidly as the Shanghai Composite came off (in response to stories of property market jitters, with a major Chinese bank said to cutting back on property lending).
NZD/USD followed a similar pattern to the AUD, but the decline was not as large and the bounce was better, when it came.
A bit of an early wrap today – Mike will be along soon for the kickoff of the week in Europe and the UK.
