Forex news for Asia trading Monday 10 February 2020
- Coronavirus mid-to-late-February peak in Wuhan says UK epidemiologist
- "Shadow Board" recommends the RBNZ hold the OCR unchanged this week
- Mitsubishi China plants (Hunan, Fujian) remain closed this week
- UK plans to announce the location of up to 10 post-Brexit free trade zones by the end this year
- Kia Motors says to cut production due to parts shortage
- Heads up for January financing data due from China
- China January CPI 5.4% y/y (expected 4.9%). PPI 0.1% (0.0%)
- The Bank of Japan raised their buying of JGBs today, 10-25 year
- Foxconn is still in negotiations with China's government about reopening some some plants
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.9863
- FX option expiries for Monday February 10 at the 10am NY cut
- Trade ideas thread - welcome to the news FX week! 10 February 2020
- China's agriculture ministry says a new H5N6 bird flu case has been found in Sichuan province
- Here is an estimate of 1.5m coronavirus cases in China, 50,000 deaths in Wuhan
- China total coronavirus cases to 40,171. Death toll 908.
- New Zealand PM Ardern postpones trip to China
- Globex trade has opened on overnight S&P500 futures, down 0.5%
- BNZ have cut their GDP forecast for New Zealand
- China's Global Times says Wuhan coronavirus infections could be much higher
- China's People's Daily says Samsung, LG, SK to resume operations at China plants
- Updated coronavirus figures from Hubei province in China: 2618 new cases, 91 new deaths
- JP Morgan have cut their forecasts for EUR/USD and GBP/USD
- New Zealand GDP forecast lowered to 0.8% for H1 - coronavirus impact
- Australian media reports 2/3 of Australia’s sovereign wealth fund fixed interest holdings are below investment grade
- China's Global Times reports a fast-food employee infected with coronavirus triggers food safety concerns
- Brexit - UK press report EU hardening its demands on the UK - 'could crash trade talks within months'
- China - PBOC to inject more stimulus measures on Monday
- Singapore's central bank advises financial institutions to take additional precautions
- China total coronavirus cases to 37,198. Death toll 811.
- World Health Organisation (WHO) says sending an advance team to China to investigate coronavirus
- Monday morning early levels - indicative forex prices - 10 February 2020
- What to watch in volatility and central banks this week
- There are some key levels in play in the new week. What to look for and where?
- Oman's oil minister said he supports the output cut recommendations made by OPEC+ technical panel
- China total coronavirus cases to 34,564. Death toll 722.
The opening moves early on Monday were once again fear-related, coronavirus headlines from the weekend weighed somewhat on 'risk' early. I say somewhat because although the reopening of futures markets in overnight tread in the US saw lower oil, lower stock indices and higher gold, currency moves were muted. AUD and NZD held fairly steady, while USD/JPY was just a few points lower.
As on offset we also got news over the weekend of more market stabilising actions to come from the PBOC (see bullets above). Morning in China brought reopening of at least some business activity. It was subdued, and as the session progressed there were more announcements of production halts from South Korea on parts supply disruption (Kia Motors). So, a mixed bag of news, but in not being one-way negative it provided a little relief.
As I update US equity futures have managed a bounce back, gold has slipped way back from its earlier high while AUD (and to a lesser extent NZD) have traded up.
Oil remains heavy.
On the coronavirus, the reported growth in cases has stabilised the past few days to a fairly steady pace - although a caveat to this is it may reflect limits to China's testing capability with reports of a shortage of testing kits/facilities. Although other explanations have been offered.
