Forex news for Asia trading Monday 20 January 2020
Weekend news of impact centred on Libya. Bullet points are here:
- Oil traders have an eye on developments in Libya over the weekend
- Libyan rival government shuts down half of oil exports
Long story short the impact is to take out around 800k barrels a day from Libyan output (which is usually around 1.3 million barrels/day). CL contracts on Globex opened higher with a gap on the news, extended and barely retraced. A US holiday Monday has thinned out trader presence.
GBP pairs opened a little lower on the session here with comments from UK Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday to the Financial Times causing concern in Europe over the weekend, bureaucrats there warning of dire economic impact, and manufacturers at home the same. Bullets for more:
- Brexit - UK chancellor Javid said the UK may break EU rules, criticism from UK industry
- Brexit - UK chancellor Javid has put a scare into EU bureaucrats, said the UK may break EU rules
Cable has since retraced.
The People's Bank of China strengthened the onshore yuan at its daily fixing today:
And left the monthly loan prime rate-fixing unchanged for the second month in a row.
Slow volatility continued for major forex pairs, net change is hardly noticeable from late Friday levels.
Regional stock markets are higher:
- China Shanghai +0.4%
- Australia ASX200 +0.3%
- Japan's NIkkei +0.2%
- HK's Hang Seng a laggard at nearly -0.3%.
- South Korea's KOSPI +0.8%
Other:
- UK PM Boris Johnson is not attending the World Economic Forum in Davos
- European worries over China trade deal with the US. China says chill out.
- BOJ policy statement due Tuesday - preview
- Onshore yuan was set stronger again today by the PBOC (cheaper for China to by more stuff offshore)
- FX option expiries for Monday January 20 at the 10am NY cut
- While we await the yuan fixing - coronavirus reports from China show it ain't going away
- UK data - Rightmove house prices January 2.3% m/m (prior -0.9%)
- Here's a bull view for EUR/USD - under 1.11 is a “clear buying opportunity”
- "First of the new decade" central bank decision coming up this week - ECB, BOJ, BOC
- Trade ideas thread as the week kicks off - Monday 20 January 2020
- Monday 20 January 2020 is a US holiday - FX impact
- Monday morning opening levels - indicative forex prices - 20 January 2020
- The Trump impeachment legal team and your trading. How are they related?
