The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Tuesday 1 October, 2013
The evening of September 30 passed in Washington without any agreement, and the US government has now shut down with the House and Senate deadlocked
Out in the real world:
- Japan Overall household spending for August: -1.6% y/y (vs. expected +0.2%)
- Japan August unemployment rate: 4.1% (vs. expected 3.8%)
- Japan August Job-to-applicant ratio: 0.95 (vs. expected 0.95)
- Large Manufacturing Index Q3: 12 (expected is +7, prior was +4)
- Large Manufacturing Outlook Q3: 11 (expected is +10, prior was +10)
- Large Non-manufacturing Index Q3: 14 (expected is +14, prior was +12)
- Large Non-manufacturing Outlook Q3: 15 (expected is +15, prior was +12)
- Large All-industry Capex: 5.1% (expected 6.0%, prior 5.5%)
- Small Manufacturing Index Q3: -9 (expected is -12, prior was -14)
- Small Manufacturing Outlook Q3: -5 (expected is -10, prior was -7)
- Small Non-manufacturing Index Q3: -1 (expected is -3, prior was -4)
- Small Non-manufacturing Outlook Q3: -2 (expected is -2, prior was -4)
- China manufacturing PMI for September 51.1 (vs. expected at 51.6)
- Australia – AIG manufacturing PMI for September: 51.7 (vs. 46.4 prior)
- Australia August retail sales +0.4% m/m (vs. expected is +0.3%)
- Australia house prices – RP Data-Rismark show +1.6% m/m for September (vs. +0.5% prior)
- RBA meeting today – preview
- Japan PM Abe expected to announce his decision on the sales tax at 0900GMT
It was a day spent waiting, for the US Congress to shut down the government, for the BOJ Tankan Survey report, for the China manufacturing PMI, and for Japanese PM Abe to announce his sales tax decision. Currencies were choppy within constrained ranges.
USD/JPY traded through overnight highs toward 98.70 but lost ground as time ticked down to the shutdown deadline
The Australian dollar was sold heavily in the minutes leading up the the release of the China manufacturing PMI. The result was seen about 2 minutes before the scheduled release time on Twitter and about 30 seconds prior on the newswires. Having been sold down below 0.9300 beforehand, those sellers piling in after the release were met with a wall of buying (funny that), seeing the AUD recover all of its losses and more to above 0.9335.
GBP/USD was steady throughout the session, climbing as the US government shutdown approached, climbing well above 1.6200.
EUR/USD ticked quietly higher as the deadline approached, but did not manage to approach overnight highs.
USD/CHF ticked a little higher through the session, but as the shutdown approached it lost 25 points .
