Forex news for Asia trading for Friday 26 March 2021
- The Bank of Japan has created a committee to facilitate creating of a central bank digital currency
- Australia's ambassador to China says Beijing's trade behaviour is 'vindictive'
- Wood Mackenzie on oil & the Suez blockage
- Unreal house sells for USD500K+ (digital NFT house)
- Oil - Next week brings the OPEC+ meeting (April 1)
- World Bank predicts China’s economy will expand by 8.1% in 2021 (vs. 2.3% in 2020)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.5376 (vs. yesterday at 6.5282)
- China Beige Book on signs that China may be moving towards deleveraging again
- Canada says it expects 1.5m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive next week
- Australian state of Queensland has recorded a new community transmission case of COVID-19
- Westpac up their RBA QE forecast, an additional 100bn AUD
- Tokyo inflation data for March, headline inflation -0.2% y/y (vs. -0.2% expected)
- Fed's Daly says the US job market is still in a trough
- China is placing sanctions on UK individuals and entities over Xinjiang comments
- JPMorgan’s Kolanovic sees month-end buying in stocks
- Next key support level for NZD/USD is 0.68
- Japanese online retailer to incorporate cryptocurrency payments into its app
- French President Macron says new restrictions coming in days and weeks ahead
- USD is heading higher still says analyst
- European Commission President von der Leyen says we are at the start of a third wave of the virus
- Germany's Merkel says leaders of the EU discussed the euro's international role
- Germany's Merkel says we are in a new pandemic
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 26 March 2021
- US Federal Reserve says dividend and buy-back limits for most banks will end on June 30
- Italian PM Draghi says an economic rebound must be a priority
Regional equities picked up on positive sentiment following the good Thursday on Wall Street, some of the gains have been impressive indeed:
- Japan's Nikkei +1.5%
- China's Shanghai Composite +1.3%
- Hong Kong's Hang Seng +1.2%
- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 +0.5%
Other China indices:
- Chinext up more than 3%
- CSI300 up more than 2%
'Risk' across the FX space headed a little higher also, led by AUD and NZD after both had a soft week. GBP and CAD benefitted too from the weaker USD on the session. The USD did gain against the yen though. Data from Japan today showed once again inflation well under target. EUR/USD was a laggard on the session, although it is up small. Comments out of Europe Thursday evening were wide-ranging but concerns were raised again about the '3rd wave' and slow vaccinations. France seems to be bumbling deeper into trouble, Germany's Angela Merkel signalled that Germany will declare France a high-risk virus area, which would trigger a negative Covid-19 test requirement for anyone entering from France.
China's onshore yuan was set at its weakest since the first week of January by the People's Bank of China today.
