Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 22 April 2020
- Oil - OPEC+ ministers conference call on Tuesday - no agreement on what to do
- Still no information out of North Korea about Kim Jong Un - Trump says "Good luck!"
- Australia Preliminary March retail sales data +8.2% m/m
- US Senate leader McConnell wants return of full Senate before further economic relief
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0903 (vs. yesterday at 7.0752)
- FX option expiries for Wednesday April 22 at the 10am NY cut
- More on oil - grim outlook
- Australia jobs data for March: Skilled vacancies -5.3% m/m
- Goldman Sachs on oil - see a 'violent rebalancing' in weeks, not months
- Australia - Westpac Leading Index for March -0.84% m/m (prior -0.39%)
- RBNZ Governor Orr's 'taboo' comment about debt monetisation
- USO ETF reveals it closed at a 36.4% premium to NAV
- Japan press reports the BOJ is considering further downgrades to its assessment of the economy
- US President Trump says he will be suspending immigration for 60 days
- US Treas Sec Mnuchin says he thinks this will be the last tranche of money for small businesses but it might not be
- Here's a new normal - CME will list oil options with a negative strike price
- BoE Governor Bailey says need to be cautious about lifting lockdown too early
- US Senate passes $484bn Covid-19 relief package for small business
- UK is "throwing everything" at developing a coronavirus vaccine - human trials begin Thursday
- Irish PM Varadkar says will examine easing coronavirus measures in 2 to 3 weeks
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 22 April 2020
- A huge build for oil inventory reported (surprising no one)
- Interactive Brokers statement on oil margin losses, circa $88m
- Coronavirus - Italy cautiously plans to begin easing lockdown in two weeks
A mixed bag of news today with glimmers of hope for coronavirus economic shut downs being relaxed in some countries showing flattening curves and the UK saying its going to begin testing a vaccine. FX rates were relatively subdued apart from a spike in AUD (with NZD along for the ride somewhat).
For oil there was nothing fresh, the May contract finished trading on Tuesday in the US, the spot month is now June. The June contract gained in price in the hours after the open for the evening (US time) session but has since given its gain back somewhat.
On the data agenda there was little, preliminary retail sales data from Australia for March showed its biggest ever rise, based on panic stockpiling buying in the March due to the coronavirus outbreak. Well after the data hit the Australian dollar had a pop higher, stop-loss buying related and with this the kiwi $ also found some buying. Both have retraced some of the up move since, NZD a little more than AUD.
Apart form the AUD and NZD moves it was mainly rangebound across major FX, and not wide ranges. USD/CAD was active but is little net changed on the session.
