Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Tuesday 17 April 2018
- China March data - recap
- AUD lower on the session .... I'm pointing the finger at the RBA minutes
- RBA minutes responses coming in: "Hint of Increasing Uncertainty"
- Bank responses to China data coming in - signs of slowdown
- China stats bureau - US started trade disputes, neglected global trade rules
- China March Retail sales 10.1% y/y (exp. 9.7%), Industrial production 6.0% y/y (exp. 6.3%)
- China Q1 GDP: 6.8% y/y (expected 6.8%)
- PBOC offering MLF today
- RBA April minutes: An appreciation in AUD would slow expected inflation
- DB on the kiwi - short
- UK Times on China and Brexit: Deal with EU or no deal with us, China tells Britain
- Fresh airstrikes on Syria - Pentagon says no US military activity
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 17 April 2018
There was plenty of news and data about but not a lot of movement for currencies.
Early news was of further airstrikes into Syria, although not from the US (the Pentagon denied there was US military activity in the area). Currency impact was negligible.
Sideways movement for FX continued until we got to one of the focal points of the day, the release of the April Reserve Bank of Australia minutes. The minutes indicate a Bank that is wavering on its confidence, just a very little, but notable nonetheless.
This was shortly followed by news from the PBOC that they were injecting one-year liquidity into money markets (via the banks Medium term lending facility - MLF) in an amount to match maturing MLF today (so, not adding extra liquidity, just replenishing) but at a rate slightly higher than the MLF operation in March (3.3% vs. 3.25%).
Following this we got Q1 GDP data from China, accompanied by March activity data. The GDP was on expectations, but March IP missed, which is perhaps a signal of a bit of a slowdown coming for China's economy in Q2 (see bullets above).
USD/JPY slid under 107 (briefly) in early Tokyo but is now back above; net the range has been only around 20 points.
EUR, CHF are little changed against the USD. Cable popped a little higher, briefly above 1.4350 as expectations for a deal with the EU and a possible hike from the BoE remain.
AUD, as noted, weakened - as did CAD and NZD against the USD. Gold is lower on the session also.
Still to come:
