Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Thursday 11 October 2018
The US President called the Federal Reserve crazy …
- US President Trump says he thinks the Fed has 'gone crazy', too tight
- WSJ on Trump's 'Fed has gone crazy' remark
- More from Trump (this is getting better): Fed going Loco
- IMF head Lagarde: Would not associate Fed's Powell with craziness
In slightly less bizarre developments today:
- US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin says not surprised markets having a bit of a correction
- IMF's Lagarde warns on debt, EMs, trade tensions
- Kudos to the Bitcoin technical analyst who called it lower - nice timing
- BOJ's Sakurai says need to continue with easing cautiously
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.9098 (vs. yesterday at 6.9072)
- Australia data - consumer inflation expectations stay at 4.0%
- Japan PPI for September: +3.0% y/y (expected +2.9%)
- More from Fed's Bostic: Fed must honour its mandate
- UK house prices - RICS House Price Balance for September: -2 (expected +1)
- RBA's Ellis: Says policy needs to be expansionary
- NZ data - September food prices -0.1% m/m (prior -0.5%)
- Fed's Bostic says the US jobless rate is very, very low
- Heads up for Washington Uber drivers - Will Trump call Powell to the White House?
- UK Sun newspaper political editor says told any deal with EU is some way off
- Tsunami possible after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits north off Australia
- UK PM May: To ask Brexit “war Cabinet” to agree to keep Britain in a customs union
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 11 October 2018
- Oil inventory data shows a bigger than expected build in US crude
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The big slide in US stock markets overnight was the focus for Asia today.
After the 4pm US cash market close the Australian dollar fell another 30 points, and with a falling USD/JPY at the same time AUD/JPY had a poor start to the day here.
NZD/USD and NZD/JPY fell away at the same time.
We got a bit of a reprieve until Tokyo markets opened, and then during the Singapore and HK mornings US equity futures (overnight Globex trade) took another hit, dropping again. Asian stock markets all opened weaker, as you'd expect, and as I post losses are approaching 4% in China (Shanghai Comp), Japan (Nikkei) and HK. China's loss today comes on the back of a big run lower in previous months. Hitting a four year low today.
The early sell off in AUD/USD retraced over following hours (kiwi too). As US stocks were taking a renewed hit EUR/USD popped above its US time high, taking out stops above 1.1545/50 on a surge. GBP, CHF, yen all traded stronger against the USD also. Flows into yen and CHF are not too surprising given the volatility.
It wasn't all bad news for the USD though ... it performed very well indeed against bitcoin …
Still to come: