Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 20 May 2020
- China government official says 95.4% of major industrial firms employees have returned to work
- Mainland Chinese airlines show signs of recovery
- Forecasts for GBP cut - Brexit risks weigh
- Macquarie says Australian stockmarket has seen its lows (conditions apply)
- Australia Retail Sales for April - preliminary: -17.9% m/m
- China loan prime rates (May) set as expected: 1 year at 3.85% and 5 year at 4.65%
- Short USD/CAD looks like an attractive recovery bet
- RBA skips QE government bond buying again today
- London to benefit from US moves to restrict, delist China firms from exchanges
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0956 (vs. yesterday at 7.0912)
- FX option expiries for Wednesday May 20 at the 10am NY cut
- Australia - Westpac's leading index for April: -1.5% m/m (prior -0.73%)
- EUR/USD may be stuck 1.09-1.10 for the balance of the week
- Japan - Core Machinery Orders for March -0.4% m/m (expected -6.7%)
- RBNZ Gov Orr says does not want to use negative rates at this this point
- Trump's remarks earlier about terminating cattle import deals - not clear from where
- Reuters Tankan (May) - Business sentiment hits decade lows
- JPM on the topside level to watch for EUR/USD
- New Zealand data - April food price +1.0% m/m
- For the FI folks - New Zealand may soon be included on global bond indices
- "Beijing may take more actions to target Australian products" - is LNG in the sights?
- Goldman Sachs says negative interest rates in the US are unlikely any time soon
- Kudlow says seeing green shoots
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 20 May 2020
- White House adviser Hassett says assessing if more stimulus needed
- Private oil inventory survey data shows a surprise draw
- Trump says considering a travel ban on Brazil and Latin America
- Fed's Rosengren - says for the economy to open the consumer must feel safe
Subdued ranges for major traded forex in the Asian timezone today.
Oil traders had it a little better, the private inventory survey released late in the US day showed a draw, which was quite the surprise after many weeks of builds. US road traffic is increasing as the country slowly emerges from various states of shut down, while air traffic may, in time, be the next cab off the rank (not yet). Oil prices popped on the data release and have managed to sustain their gain for the Asia trade session so far. USD/CAD topped above 1.3960 and has dropped back to be circa 1.3925 as I update.
News and data flow was otherwise slow. There was a flurry of data from Australia, but nothing to really surprise. Japanese machine orders were better than expected (not as bad as expected) but Ministry officials cited a 'lumpy' order book for the improvement on the month, and that this is unlikely to persist ahead.
USD/JPY turned down just shy of hitting the 108 big figure. EUR/USD managed to eke out a range of about 25 points only. Cable managed a better performance, up on the session towards 1.2280 before turning back to be more or less mid-range now.
AUD and NZD fell in the US afternoon, both retraced somewhat. RBNZ Governor Orr was, once again, on the wires but did not add anything new to his known views.
The People's Bank of China left their loan prime rates unchanged at the monthly setting. The annual National parliament gets underway tomorrow, yuan remains relatively steady heading in.
