Forex news for Asia trading for Friday 19 February 2021
- Japan has found 93 cases of a new mutant of the COVID-19 virus
- Elon Musk says Bitcoin is "simply a less dumb form of liquidity than cash"
- "PBOC believes the yuan should be gradually trending up vs the US dollar this year"
- NZ residential mortgage lending in December surged 48% y/y to a new record high
- More from Yellen on keeping Trump's tariffs on China
- US - Senior Democrats have discussed $3 tln jobs, infrastructure package
- South Korea PM says considering a 5th round of COVID-19 cash handouts
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4624
- FX option expiries for Friday February 19 at the 10am NY cut
- PBOC media says don't mistake liquidity withdrawal as a policy signal
- US President Biden says again, have to go big on COVID-19 relief package
- Australia preliminary retail sales for January +0.6% m/m (expected +2.0%)
- Japan Jibun preliminary PMI (February): Manufacturing 50.6 (prior 49.8) Services 45.8 (prior 46.1)
- New Zealand Activity Index continues to show modest growth, recovery ... starting to plateau
- UK - GfK Consumer Confidence for February: -23 (expected -28)
- HSBC forecast for USD/CAD is 1.22 by year end
- Japan inflation data for January: Headline CPI -0.6% y/y (expected -0.7%)
- Toyota says plants in Mexico to reduce production in coming days
- Germany's Finance Ministry sees subdued economy ahead due to lockdown
- Australia looks set to approve a permanent increase in unemployment benefits
- Australia Markit preliminary PMI for February, both manufacturing and services lower
- Novavax has announced it will provide 1.1 bn doses of its Covid-19 vaccine
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 19 February 2021
- NZ data - producer prices (PPI) for Q4
- ECB's Villeroy says no risk of an overheating economy, sustained increased in inflation in Europe
- US Treas Sec Yellen speaking on stocks now - valuation very high, need to be careful
- US Treas Sec Yellen says hoping to see progress on stimulus bill in the next 2 weeks
The Canadian dollar was a mover on the session, weakening alongside the continued slide in oil prices during the day here. A restart of power supplies to some parts of Texas will enable some oil production to recommence, and the Biden administration looking to restart talks with Iran has taken some heat out of Middle East concerns.
Elsewhere across major FX it was a small range session only, characterised by a little strength for the US dollar. We had data from Australia and Japan that failed to get much of a response from currencies.
Gold and silver lost some ground.
The People's Bank of China set the onshore yuan mid-rate a good deal stronger (for the yuan) than the Bloomberg and Reuters surveys indicated was expected, a signal the Bank is likely comfortable with a rising trend for the currency again.
