Forex news for Asia trading on Thursday 27 May 2021

The New Zealand dollar was the mover today, albeit not by much. NZD/USD slid during the early part of the session into and throughout testimony from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Orr to a committee in parliament. Orr did not really add much to what he has said previously. In a nutshell he says that if the economy continues to improve as expected the Bank policy will tighten beginning in H2 (late in H2 most likely) of next year. As a hedge, he says that shocks to the economy will mean continued, and perhaps more, policy accommodation from the Bank (see bullets above). NZD/USD hit lows under 0.7270 and as I post is back on session highs just under 0.7295.

USD/JPY fell from highs circa 109.20 to around 109.08 as I post. Not much of a range in other major FX either with an absence of any news of impact as a catalyst.

On the data front we had Q1 capex data from Australia which surprised to the topside. This augers well as an input to Q1 GDP to be reported from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on June 2, estimates I have seen at this stage are for a 1.2% q/q GDP reading, and thereabouts. The Australian dollar was led around like an old, fat, slovenly dog on a leash by the NZD. Australia's second-largest population state was placed back into lockdown, for 7 days. Its fourth.

EUR, CAD both are little changed. Cable lost some ground but retraced some of its loss to be down slightly on the session.

BTC/USD is back under USD38K.

The US and China spoke on a phone call re trade, a high-level conversation between China's Vice Premier Liu He and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

Forex news for Asia trading onThursday27May 2021

Vice Premier of China, Liu He