Forex news for Asia trading Monday 11 January 2016

China:

Weekend

While we were waiting for some China turmoil today the Rand sneaked in and stole the show in the very early going:

Its losses were around 10% against the USD in the space of minutes (its since recovered a good amount since, but not nearly all).

Early movement for other currencies also, commodity and EM currencies lower and the yen stronger, fitting the pattern we have come to expect/

It was then back to waiting for the China open. First the yuan 'fix' which came in barely changed despite the models looking for another devaluation. Its PBOC/politburo driven at present.

Next we had the opening of China's stock markets for the week ... lower. Stocks stabilized slightly higher than the open, but this didn't last. Going into the Chinese market lunch break stocks made new session lows:

  • CSI 300 -2.2%
  • Shanghai Composite -2.4%
  • ChiNext Board-3.3%
  • Shenzhen Composite -3.5%
  • Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index -2.5%
  • Japan was closed today, so no update for the cash equity markets there, but as I podt Nikkei225 futures are showing -1.41%
  • ASX -1.31%

Over the course of the session the AUD/USD has recovered its early losses, while the NZD has steadied with a small loss on the loss.

EUR/USD popped higher earlier (above 1.0965) but has given it back, around 1.0912 as I update. Gold is a little stronger on the session while USD/CHF is not much changed.

Cable had an early dip, wiping some stops off the boards under 1.4500 before sharply bouncing toward 1.4560 and settling somewhat now around 1.4525 and thereabouts.

Oil slipped lower again today.

Before we leave China-related news, Hong Kong's yuan overnight HIBOR jumped by a record 939 bps to 13.4% today, more here. Meanwhile, Taiwanese authorities are in buying stocks on their market.