Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 13 February 2020
China/ coronavirus -related news
- Shanghai Composite has all but closed its gap
- Taiwan plans $US 2bln special budget to help economy deal with coronavirus impact
- Foxconn has now sealed their lips on restart plans
- China NHC urges more Hubei cities with coronavirus to go into lock down
- Heads are rolling in China Hubei administration - party secretary fired
- Japan's health minister says another 44 coronavirus cases found on the cruise ship
- More detail on the new coronavirus tests in Hubei (why the number of cases has surged)
- Hong Kong government staff work from home to be extended another week
- South Korea: 740 soldiers quarantined over new coronavirus
- Iran's embassy in China says medical supplies (including N95 masks) donated by Iran arrived in China this morning
- An employee at Singapore's biggest bank, DBS, contracted coronavirus
- United Airlines says it is suspending flights to China until late April
- World’s biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, is cancelled (coronavirus)
- New case of coronavirus said to be reported in California
- It is unlikely the big jump in coronavirus cases reported will be repeated tomorrow
- Now awaiting the total mainland China coronavirus cases number - also expected to be much higher
- ICYMI - the news shoving around markets is the big jump in coronavirus cases in china
- China's Hubei province has reported 14,840 new coronavirus cases
- Moody's weighs in on coronavirus economic impacts - could continue over next 3 quarters
- S&P says coronavirus outbreak will cut 0.5% from Australia's real GDP growth in 2020
- Fitch is on the lookout for coronavirus economic impacts - on trade, ports, output & more
Other
- Charlie Munger warns 'lots of troubles coming' - 'too much wretched excess'
- More on the huge jump for UK house prices in January
- More on the 'Oil Chiefs Warned Trump Team of Unrealistic Goals in China Deal'
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.9785 (vs. yesterday at 6.9718)
- FX option expiries for Thursday February 13 at the 10am NY cut
- RBA Governor Lowe says the outlook for the Australian economy is improving
- Bank of Canada Governor Poloz says CAD economy in a pretty good place
- Japan - PPI for January: 0.2% m/m (expected 0.0%)
- UK data - RICS monthly house price balance for January +17% (expected +3%)
- Australia survey of consumer inflation expectations, for February: 4.0% (prior 4.7%)
- Oil industry leaders say US will struggle to produce the energy products China has committed to buy
- RBNZ's Hawkesby says RBNZ has a genuine neutral bias on interest rates
- Brexit - (overnight comment) UK Chancellor Javid says frictionless trade with the EU to be "over"
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 13 February 2020
- RBNZ monetary policy statement - summary ICYMI
Hubei province in China announced a huge surge in the number of coronavirus cases reported today, which saw 'risk' trades lower in response. Wuhan is the epicentre of the outbreak and the capital of the province. The Health Commission for Hubei Province issued a statement explaining they are now using revised diagnostic procedures which resulted in the revision to the numbers of cases much, much higher. They also reported the number of deaths was about double, dunno what revised diagnostic technique they used for this. A new party chief for Hubei was appointed today, there may have been a measure of 'clearing the decks' of bad news with this? There were other reshuffles at high levels of the Party.
There is plenty of news surrounding the coronavirus in the bullets above, cases on the cruise ship in Japan are now >200, Foxconn is disputing the Reuters report this week on factory reopening timings, other cities in Hubei are being urged to take the same drastic measures Wuhan has taken if an outbreak occurs - and more above.
In the midst of all this we had the governors of the BoC and RBA speaking on a panel. Both recognised the uncertainty the virus poses but both were also on balance optimistic.
Market movement , as already referred to, was net 'risk negative, yen crosses are generally lower. As usual though the ranges here were not large. Gold was a beneficiary of the heightened concerns. Again, not a large range.
Data of note was the PPI from Japan, ticking a touch higher in January.
