Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 18 April 2019
- China Securities Journal says PBOC unlikely to cut RRR in the short term
- Japan press suggests October sales tax hike may be delayed
- China's SAFE: US Fed policy stance will be favourable for China's capital flows
- AUD jobs report - Australia's largest fund manager not impressed
- Bank of Canada meet next week - preview (spoiler alert, rates to remain on hold)
- The other AUD data. NAB Q1 business survey, shows confidence , conditions both lower
- Australia jobs: Employment Change: 25.7K (exp. 15.0K) Unemployment 5.0% (exp. 5.0%)
- People’s Bank of China sets yuan reference rate at 6.6911
- More China stimulus on the way? Rumours say yes.
- Japan Nikkei Manufacturing PMI for April, preliminary: 49.5 (prior 49.2)
- The agenda in Europe today a 'big test', could send EUR/USD down 50-70 pips
- Fitch confirms Australia at AAA, 'Stable' …. but
- Fed's Logan speech - not on her economic nor monetary policy outlook
- Reuters Tankan - Japan manufacturing index lower in April vs. March
- Australia flash PMIs for April: Manufacturing 51.0 (prior 52.0), Services 50.5 (prior 49.3)
- China growth pick up and the EUR vs AUD contest
- 'NZD solid floor at 0.67' …
- Analyst warns that the New Zealand CPI reading is 'no trigger for May cut'
- North Korean media report test of a new tactical guided weapon
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 18 April 2019
Australia's March 2019 labour market report was published today, showing a strong beat for jobs growth on the month but a tick up in the unemployment rate (in line with the central estimate). The big beat on headline employment change saw the Australian dollar marked up 25-odd points to highs just shy of 0.7200. It fell back to little changed nearly as quickly and is now a few tics higher, net, for the session.
While the headline result on jobs growth was solid indeed, as was the addition to full-time employment, some of the details are little weak, as are separate data on employment in PMIs, and job vacancies. Headlines are what grab the attention though and today's was, on balance, a good one.
There were various other items of data and news, from Japan and China (see bullets above), but impact on forex was barely more than a ripple.
EUR/USD has lost a handful of points, cable and kiwi are little changed, CAD is down a few tics. USD/JPY highs were circa 112.10 early and it fell around 20 points through the Tokyo morning, Its not too far from mid-range as I post.
As a heads up, Friday will see widespread closures across FX centres for the Good Friday holiday here in Asia, Japan the only major centre open. Monday, ditto, with only Japan and Singapore open that day. ForexLive will have some coverage Friday and Monday, it'll be less than usual.
Still to come:
