Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 28 August 2019
- Its official - Japan has removed South Korea as a preferential trade partner
- Pentagon in talks with Australia on rare earths plant
- Satellite photos indicate North Korea may be making preparations to test a submarine-launched missile
- China press: China's debt level stabilized in Q2, leaves more room fiscal policy boost
- HK press - US moves quickly to implement Trump’s trade war tariff increase on China
- Responses to the poor Australian data: "a material negative"
- China has new confidence it can push back against the US. CNY forecasts revised
- Australia - Q2 Construction work done: -3.8% q/q (expected -1.0%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0835 (vs. yesterday at 7.0810)
- AUD traders heads up - here's why there will be no QE from the RBA
- North Korean state media seems to think too many missiles are not enough!
- Italian political developments should be a positive for EUR sentiment … should be ….
- RBA to remain on hold at its meeting next week, but its just a pause in the cycle of cutting the cash rate further
- RBNZ Gov Orr says NZD exchange rate plays a significant role in competitiveness
- UK data - BRC Shop Price Index for August -0.4% y/y (prior -0.1%)
- China exploring ways to loosen or remove car-purchase limits
- China stock markets - MSCI raises weighting for China stocks in its indexes
- ICYMI: UBS GWM less confident on equities citing (go on, have a guess) trade war
- UK to announce an increase in public spending next week
- Citi on USD/CAD - bearish
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 28 August 2019
- Private oil data shows larger than expected draw in crude oil inventory
Gold tested above 1543 USD during the session here but dropped back towards 1532.50 rapidly. Over in FX it was the yuan that moved, it dropped also on the session here.
USD/CNH traded higher ahead of the USD/CNY mid rate setting. The offshore yuan hit above 7.1680 briefly before dropping back after the People's Bank of China set the reference rate for the onshore yuan at USD/CNY 7.0835, only barely above Tuesday. The trend has been for the PBOC to depreciate the onshore yuan at the central-rate setting, but not by nearly as much as the market expects. And that continued again today.
USD/CNH dropped back on the announcement but soon headed back towards its earlier highs. As I update its more or less in the middle of that high-low range (chart below).
Other news from China included an underwhelming post from the State Council on consumption 'stimulus' efforts that was not well received. Nothing at all on boosting wages, for example.
The Australian dollar is net softer on the session, weighed down by China sentiment and also a poor set of Q2 construction data (see bullets above). Its only a few points lower on the session, as is the NZD/USD. We had comments, again, from Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Orr earlier. Nothing surprising but check out the bullets above.
USD/JPY is a few points positive on the session here. EUR/USD is little changed but down a few tics, cable is also a few points worse. USD/CAD has made a fresh high compared with US trade, alongside that lower AUD and NZD.
Oil got a boost from a huge draw in headline stocks announced at 4.30pm US time Tuesday (official data will hit Wednesday morning US time, watch for confirmation or otherwise) and has sustained its gains through the Asian session here.
Still to come:
