Forex news for Asia trading Friday 18 January 2019
- US politics - US media report Trump directed his (former) attorney Cohen to lie to Congress
- China's Vice Premier Liu says China, Germany are committed to multilateral trade
- Fitch: Property market conditions are likely to continue to soften in Australia, NZ
- Tesla will recall more than 14,000 cars in China over airbags
- ANZ: China/US trade negotiations, market optimism, despite lack of concrete outcomes
- North Korea's denuclearization negotiator arrives in Washington
- Fed's Evans spoke earlier - more detail / recap
- ANZ on oil, OPEC+, and those production cuts
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.7665 (vs. yesterday at 6.7592)
- More detail on the ECB delay rate hike delay expected by analysts
- Poll of analysts - expect an ECB rate hike to be delayed further
- Japan inflation data - recap
- Japanese nationwide headline CPI (December): 0.3% y/y (expected 0.3%)
- Its official - Trump has cancelled his delegation's trip to Davos
- Brexit - UK Times report key May supporters edges towards customs union
- Brexit - Crispin Odey warns of a people's revolution if the UK does not exit the EU
- Nomura says the bad news for euro is now priced in, comfortable being long
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 18 January 2019
- BusinessNZ New Zealand manufacturing PMI for December: 55.1 (prior 53.5)
- Fed's Evans: The Fed can be easily be patient now, in a good position
A news item hit during the US afternoon (Greg covered it and again in the wrap, but ICYMI):
Which was soon denied:
Nevertheless, the hope that it was true (where there is smoke there is fire?) carried in Asia trade during the session here. USD/JPY had fallen back on the denial but it gained back all of its drop in the Toyo morning and has held steady at its session highs as I update.
The Tokyo morning also saw gains (not large) for AUD, NZD, CAD, EUR with the same reasoning/hope being cited. Currencies have pretty much lost their steam since and most are now barely changed net for the session.
Compounding the yens losses today was the December inflation report out of Japan. Unsurprisingly it showed the CPI very, very low, well under target (as usual). Alongside a higher USD/JPY yen crosses found a bid.
Other news and data flow was light.
Still to come: