Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Wednesday 21 February 2018
- Big day coming up for info from the UK, Europe and the US (FOMC) - previews in one place
- Yen pairs run into resistance levels, but sentiment remains bullish
- More on the Australian Q4 Construction work data out earlier
- Finnish authorities have a Bitcoin storage puzzle to solve
- US government debt trading update - yields higher again today
- Mike Pence & North Korean planned meeting cancelled by Pyongyang
- Yen continues its slide
- Federal Reserve FOMC minutes due Wednesday - more previews
- GBP traders heads up - job market report due Wednesday - preview
- Coming up from Europe today - PMIs. What to expect.
- Federal Reserve FOMC minutes due Wednesday - previews
- BOJ Funo says there is no need to be too pessimistic on Japan's economy
- Heads up for large forex option expiries due later this week
- IMF says near term risks to Australian economic growth are more balanced
- Comments from new RBNZ Governor (incoming - begins work on March 27)
- Japan - Nikkei / Markit Manufacturing PMI, preliminary, February: 54.0 (prior 54.8)
- Australia Q4 Wage Price Index: +0.6% q/q (expected 0.5%)
- Australia Q4 Construction Work Done: -19.4% q/q (expected -10.0%)
- FX option expiries for 21 February 2018 - 10am NY cut
- Australia - Westpac Leading Index for January: -0.24% m/m (prior +0.27%)
- Japan's Asakawa says yen's recent moves have been one-sided
- Plenty of Australian data due at 0030 GMT – all the previews in one place
- Australian data for Q4 Construction Work Done due today – more previews
- Bank of Korea governor says prepared for faster than expected Fed rate hike
- Hedge fund manager: Bitcoin “not just a bubble, not just a fraud" (& downhill from there)
- Wages data from Australia is the focus, but we also get GDP input data – what to watch
- MOAR Brexit! Eurosceptic Tory MPs set out their Brexit red lines in letter to PM May
- Boris Johnson 'said Brexit was a mess' during private meeting with German officials
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 21 February 2018
- Q4 Wages data from Australia today is a big focus – more previews
- Canada - BC government to increase foreign buyer tax on housing, include more cities
- Wages data from Australia today is a big focus – previews
A few items of note from the timezone today:
- Australian data
- Comments from Japan's 'top currency diplomat' (ps. Japan's top currency laundromat is bitcoin ... I'll get my coat)
- Higher UST yields (again)
The data from Australia was for Q4 construction work (down bigly in the quarter, which was expected and its being skewed by huge LNG platform import influence). Of more focus was the wages data, which beat expectations but is still well below average.
The Australian dollar had a very small pop in the wake of the wages beat, but it did not sustain and it soon fell away to be a poor performer on the session.
AUD/USD was helped lower by a stronger USD, which was manifest very clearly in USD/JPY. Comments from Japan's Masatsugu Asakawa, vice minister of finance for international affairs (he's the 'top currency diplomat' I referred to above) were read as yen negative (they were) and alongside higher UST yields on the session the yen lost ground. Not just against the USD, EUR/JPY (for example) is up 70+ points from its lows (well, it was at one stage).
Other currencies didn't do a lot, but have come off a little against the USD. CAD, EUR, CHF, GBP, NZD all down against the big buck. Oil and gold, too, both down on the session here.
ps. While this is the wrap and not in the 'education' category, check this out from UBS (I think its of direct relevance to the UST - USD move today):
- short-term price action tends to be driven by market themes which come and go in an often surprising and abrupt fashion
pps. don't be a hedgehog
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Still to come
- Federal Reserve FOMC minutes due Wednesday - more previews
- GBP traders heads up - job market report due Wednesday - preview
- Coming up from Europe today - PMIs. What to expect.
- Federal Reserve FOMC minutes due Wednesday - previews
And, a plug for the Asian time tomorrow:
You won't see this on the go-to economic calendars (which is a good reason to go to ForexLive), but from Australia tomorrow we get more wages data, and this one is usually a better guide than the wage index we got today. From the Australian Bureau of Statistics, results of the twice yearly Survey of Average Weekly Earnings:
- Contains estimates of average weekly ordinary time earnings
- and average weekly total earnings for full-time adult employees
- and average weekly total earnings for all employees
Likely to give a decent indication to what wages are doing - the RBA will take note.
