Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 18 May 2017
- Responses to the Australian jobs report data: "volatility in an improving trend"
- BOJ dep gov. Iwata: No exit policy yet decided
- EUR/USD: 5 Reasons To Stay Bullish; Where To Target? - ABN AMRO
- French parliamentary election - Support for Macron's party grows
- Remember the ANZ job ads April result? (Me neither) Anyway, revised lower.
- China new home prices rise in 58 cities m/m for April (was 62 prior)
- Australia (April) Employment Change: +37.4K (expected +5K)
- PBOC sets USD/CNY reference rate for today at 6.8612 (vs. yesterday at 6.8635)
- NZ data - ANZ Consumer Confidence for May: +1.8% m/m (prior -2.8%)
- Australia - Consumer Inflation expectations for May: 4.0% (prior 4.1%)
- Japan economy minister Ishihara comments on Q1 GDP
- US Treasury secretary Mnuchin to say 3 percent economic growth achievable
- Japan Q1 GDP (preliminary) +0.5 % q/q (expected 0.5%)
- Japan Q1 GDP (prelim) coming up at 2350GMT - heads up & preview
- Trump says "A thorough investigation will confirm ... no collusion"
- White House statement about to come re appointment of special counsel
- UK election - latest YouGov/Times Poll has Conservatives on 45% and Labour on 32%
- Tokyo morning update, USD/JPY already with a near 50 point bounce
- Australian employment report due today - 2 quick previews
- Former FBI Director Mueller appointed as special counsel to oversee Russia investigation
- Its Australian jobs report day - your guide to avoid the confusion
- An end of day snapshot of the strongest and weakest currencies
- Japan press: Has the Bank of Japan really tamed long rates?
- Japan GDP today - some analysts flagging a potential upside surprise, here's why
- UK press - PM May to commit to wiping out deficit by middle of next decade
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 18 May 2017
- Economic data due from Asia today (political tape bombs too?)
- US stocks have the worst day of 2017
ICYMI
- ForexLive Americas FX news wrap: USD/JPY falls most in 8 months
The fallout from the political mayhem continued in Asia today but there was little in the way of freshly brewed turmoil.
USD/JPY continued to swing, though, extending its down move in late US time to touch around 110.50 briefly before climbing back to circa 111.20. The focus for yen flows has been US politics, but there was little today apart from the appointment of a special counsel to oversee the Russia probe. So we settled for Q1 GDP data as fresh input.
The data was mixed, with positives and a few negatives (see bullets above), USD/JPY traded lower following the data, though disentangling the response to data and the continued concerns on politics is difficult.
EUR/USD ticked to a high above 1.1170 briefly before giving back a little; there was nothing much in the way of euro specific news today. USD/CHF and GBP/USD are both little changed also.
Australian employment data was a focus, on balance a solid report though the full-time/part-time split detracted from a good jump in jobs and a fall in the unemployment rate. There is more in the bullet on this data above; and today especially its well worth checking out as the it highlights what the RBA thinks on the full-time/part-time split ... like it or not.
The Australian dollar jumped on the data and has since stabilsed around (and now above 0.7450). NZD/USD is a little lower on the session.
Gold & oil - both little changed on the session.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei -1.44%
- Shanghai -0.16%
- HK -0.33%
- ASX -1.25%
You'll notice in the headline to this post the (mostly) caveat. MXN was sold heavily today, the move being attributed to Presidential scandal ... in Brazil. President Michel Temer is accused of authorising illicit payments to a jailed former speaker of the lower house of the Brazilian parliament ... more here at the BBC.
MXN:
