Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Thursday 29 November 2018
- MS on the Australian dollar (AUD below fair value) and this weekend's Xi - Trump meeting
- Recap of BOJ comments earlier - Masai upbeat on prospects for CPI
- The RBNZ have shifted the yuan into #1 place on its NZD index
- Westpac on Australian capex data - 'equipment spending surprised to the high side'
- CBA says AUD, NZD bouncing after being oversold, domestic economic data supportive
- BOJ board member Masai highlights uncertainty for the global economy
- AUD/NZD move, buying the least dirty shirt?
- PBOC's daily yuan mid rate setting: 6.9353 (vs. yesterday at 6.9500)
- Heads up - another firm in China unable to make bond payments
- Australia Q3 capex data: -0.5% q/q (expected +1.0%)
- NZ November business confidence is unchanged from October
- Japan data - Oct. retail sales beat, coming in at +3.5% y/y vs. 2.7% expected
- PIMCO on the risks of higher US inflation in 2019
- US trade rep Lighthizer - Examining all tools to equalise auto tariffs on China
- Fed Chair Powell's lovey dovey comments … or were they? Incoming responses continue
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 29 November 2018
- November 28 2018, the "Powell Put" is born
There were big moves for currencies against the USD in response to Fed Chair Powell's comments during US time. Some currencies went up, some went up even more!
USD weakness continued to a small extent here in Asia today against the yen but against other currencies it was more or less flat. We had some better data from Japan today, October retial sales came in at a beat. Combined with some optimism from a BOJ board member this may have been enough to tilt in favour of the yen. The move was not large, approaching 30 points down from early highs. USD./CHF moved in a similar direction and for a similar small range.
EUR and GBP managed to gain against the USD here also. The moves were just a few points and without surpassing their NY time extremes.
NZD/USD lost a little ground. We got some data from NZ, the much-watched monthly business confidence number. It came in unchanged on the month, which doesn't sound that bad, but its unchanged at a very, very low level. See the post (linked above) for more.
AUD/USD is barely changed. We got Capex data today (for Q3, and an input into Q3 GDP to come on December 5). it was a mixed result, the Q3 spend was a miss (but Q2 was revised higher), while the forward looking estimates showed a solid improvement. Notable also was the equipment, plant and machinery spend, this will provide a boost to Q3 GDP. See the bullets above for more details. On balance the data were a positive, IMO (but you know what everyone says about opinions). AUD/NZD gained some ground on the combination of the less than impressive NZ data and the OK Australian data.
Regional stocks mostly gained, following surging US markets on Powell.
Still to come:
