Forex news for Asia trading on Monday 10 May 2021
US pipeline news (read from the bottom for the chronological order of posts):
- US pipeline cyberattack - Valero Energy charter an oil products tanker for storage in the Gulf Coast
- US government declared a state of emergency over fuel pipeline cyber-attack
- Goldman Sachs on the Colonial Pipeline gasoline network shut down - brief disruption
- Sunday evening US Gasoline futures jump higher after huge US east coast pipeline shutdown
- Weekend - US fuel pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline cyberattack forced shutdown of its fuel network
Other:
- South Korea aims for 4% GDP growth this year, will spend more to ensure jobs are added
- Australian Retail Sales for March +1.3% m/m (vs. preliminary +1.4%,prior -0.8%)
- Australian April business confidence 26 (prior 17) & conditions 32 (prior 24)
- Global semiconductor chip shortage - Honda suspends production in Thailand
- Toyota is planning to increase auto production globally to its highest ever
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4425 (vs. Friday at 6.4678)
- ICYMI - S&P Dow Jones has launched 3 new cryptocurrency indexes: Bitcoin, Ethereum
- Coronavirus - Australia - NSW to make Pfizer vaccine available 'within weeks'
- Goldman Sachs - NFP huge miss reduces the chance of a 2021 Federal Reserve taper
- ANZ on questioning the RBA commitment to not hike the cash rate until 2024
- Pantera Capital (cryptocurrency fund) is, err ... bullish on Bitcoin
- Musk says Spacex to launch satellite DOGE-1 to the moon in 2022
- GBP higher after the weekend Scottish election - shake it off
- Saturday Night Live Elon Musk reviews are in - DOGE drops
- Goldman Sachs explain the NFP miss - blaming laziness
- Weekend news - Iran says it will extend its (nuke) deal with the IAEA if needed
- NZ finmin Robertson speaking - says economic recovery better than expected
- Weekend - ECB's Rehn wants the Bank to adopt the Fed's inflation target approach
- Monday morning open levels - indicative forex prices - 10 May 2021
- Scottish pro-independence parties seen winning majority but SNP falls short
GBP opened little changed in the early hours of Monday here but soon caught a bid. Scottish weekend elections were the focus heading into the weekend and the results leave a potential independence referendum in question ahead. Cable has topped out just above 1.4040 on the session here.
USD/JPY traded higher on the session also, retracing a portion of the plunge that followed the US nonfarm payroll report on Friday. USD/JPY registered a high just over 108.90 so far for the session in Asia.
Thus GBP/JPY was a solid gainer on the day. Moves for other major FX were more subdued.
That was not the case in commodities though. Iron ore, steel rebar rocketed higher, limit up in China. Dalian hog futures dropped.
In oil markets (oil products really) the news was of a cyber attack shutting down a major network of pipelines responsible for supplying around 50% of US east coast gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.
On the data front the focus was Australian business confidence and conditions both hitting record highs. Also from Australia were retail sales data, April and Q1, both just a little on the disappointing side (see bullets above). AUD/USD is little net changed on the day so far.
In the crypto space BTC traded higher on Monday Asia time, as did DOGE (after dropping over the weekend on Elon Musk's 'Saturday Night Live' appearance).
The People's Bank of China set the reference rate for onshore yuan at its strongest (lowest for USD/CNY) since early February today. The 'but' is that the reference rate set today for the onshore yuan was not as strong as was expected (6.4425 vs. the Bloomberg survey estimate of 6.4370), which indicates the central bank is likely looking to slow the rise of the currency.
Regional equities:
Japan's Nikkei +0.8%, Topix +1%
China's Shanghai Composite +0.25%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.09%
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 +1.05%
DOGE: