Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 14 June 2017

Just to mix it up a little, I'm going to begin with the "still to come" - i.e. the much-awaited FOMC announcement:

  • FOMC coming up - preview (& vulnerability of the USD)
  • Its FOMC week - preview from Goldman Sachs (spoiler, expect a hike!)
  • Its FOMC week - preview from BoA/ML (spoiler, expect a hike!)

OK, back to normal service with today's headlines:

  • More on JP Morgan's changed RBA forecast
  • Bloomberg on China's worsening outlook for corporate defaults in H2 of 2017
  • Fire engulfs tower block in west London
  • FOMC coming up - preview (& vulnerability of the USD)
  • JPM amend their call for the next RBA rate cut, in H1 2018 (from H2 2017)
  • China data: (May) Industrial Production 6.5% y/y (expected 6.4%)
  • China data: (May) Retail Sales 10.7% y/y (expected 10.7%)
  • China (May) Fixed Assets (excluding rural) YTD y/y 8.6% ( expected 8.8%)
  • BoA / ML monthly fund managers survey
  • PBOC sets USD/CNY reference rate for today at 6.7939 (vs. yesterday at 6.7954)
  • Goldman Sachs: 60% chance MSCI includes China’s A shares in emerging market index
  • Australia - Westpac Consumer Confidence Index (June): -1.8% m/m (prior -1.1% m/m)
  • Data due from China today- previews
  • PIMCO’s Global Advisory Board has some big hitters - here are their views
  • Australia - ANZ/ Roy Morgan weekly consumer sentiment: 112.9 (previous week 112.9 also)
  • China press on a 2 week old MLF injection. Hmmm.
  • AUD ... What we really need right now are MOAR iron ore mines - Rio Tinto's new one
  • NZ data - Q1 Balance of Payments Current Account $ 0.244bn (prior -2.335bn)
  • New Zealand - Food Price inflation (May): 2.4 % m/m (prior -0.8% m/m)
  • USD: Fed to the rescue: Will the USD rally out of FOMC? - NAB
  • RBA Governor Lowe is "chatty, not nutty"
  • New Zealand house price data for May (REINZ)
  • China industrial production data due today - preview
  • ICYMI: Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: GBP and CAD has stories to trade
  • Former Fed Kochlakota: A hike on Wednesday is a mistake
  • Brexit - Schäuble first, then Macron; both say door remains open for UK to stay in EU
  • Trade ideas thread - 14 June 2017 (& welcome to Wednesday!)
  • Private oil inventory data shows a surprise build in crude stocks
  • SICYMI: S&P and Dow has record closes. Nasdaq still working on reversing declines.

Not a lot of forex movement here in Asia today which isn't too much of a surprise ahead of a Federal Open Market Committee announcement.

NZD/USD was a touch on the heavy side early in the piece, down to test 0.7200. We got some data on the soft side from New Zealand as the currency drooped but it has since bounced pretty much all the way back in a small range for the session.

Small ranges were the story of the day, cable barely budged while USD/JPY struggled to ratchet up a 20 point span. EUR/USD and USD/CHF, not much different.

We had Australian and Chinese data today, but AUD didn't seem at all fussed, its traced out a range of 10 or less points from top to bottom.

The data for the day is, as usual, in the bullets above; the focus was China. In brief - industrial production and retail sales are little changed on the month, steady as they go, while investment data was just a touch weaker.

USD/CAD continued its slide, down another 20-odd points here in Asia today. Gold gained a few dollars on the session, to above the US-time high. Oil fell in late NY on the release of the inventory data and hasn't recovered much at all since.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei +0.15%
  • Shanghai -0.58%
  • HK -0.29%
  • ASX +0.97%