Forex trading headlines for Asia Thursday 17 April 2014
- New Zealand – ANZ job advertisements for March: +1.1% m/m (vs. prior was 3.4%)
- Goldman Sachs expects the New Zealand dollar to come down to Earth
- China to cut reserve requirement at some rural banks
- Reuters Tankan: Japan manufacturers index up 7 points, non-manufacturers index at record
- China Securities Journal editorial: Central government will unveil more policy measures
- Japan Buying Foreign Bonds: Y 115.5bn (and the rest of the data)
- China’s slowdown in growth will boost pressure to dial up stimulus, dial back reforms
- Goldman Sachs: China measures small in terms of macro-impact
- Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kuroda: Japan’s economy continues to recover moderately
- China PM Li: China to keep fiscal, monetary policy stance unchanged
- New Zealand ANZ consumer confidence index for April: +1.1% to 133.5% m/m (prior was -0.8%)
- Australia – National Australia Bank quarterly business confidence for Q1: 6 (prior was 8)
- China – March actual Foreign Direct Investment: -1.47% y/y (expected +2.0%)
Some pre-Easter positioning and squaring saw moves across the board today, albeit not large.
The USD weakened, with EUR, GBP and CHF all higher during the session here, with cable triggering some stops above very recent highs and continuing higher, ticking to its highest since mid-2009.
USD/JPY dropped away from the 102.20/30 where it had been on rails for Europe and the US, with investment bank selling (said to be on behalf of a central bank) taking it down through 102.00 and lower.
NZD and AUD ticked a little higher, but the NZD/USD came under selling pressure again above 0.8640. AUD/USD managed a 20-odd point gain in the morning before sellers ahead of 0.8390 capped it again. Both kiwi and aussie drifted back to near even on the session as of writing.
