Forex news for Asia-Pacific trading on October 29, 2018
- Mark Mobius (Mobius Capital Markets): Chinese stocks could see more weakness
- Indonesia's Lion Air Boeing jet crashed. 188 people on board.
- China Commerce ministry to impose anti dumping tax on some chemicals from US, Saudi Arabia
- Hang Seng to open 1% higher at 24955.79
- PBOC sets yuan midpoint at 6.9377 vs last close at 6.9510
- Jair Bolsonaro wins Brazilian presidential election
- Japan retail sales for September -0.2% vs -0.2% expected
- EURUSD traders to focus on 100 hour MA in Monday trading
- More heartache in the US over the weekend
- Merkel's CDU and coalition SPD lost support in Hesse regional elections
- UK's Exchequer Hammond: We would take appropriate fiscal measures
- What's on the economic calendar this week
Markets:
- Gold flat at $1233.16
- Nikkei 225 +0.33%
- Shanghai Comp -1.47%
- S&P 500 futures unchanged
- NZD is strongest, CHF is the weakest.
The markets got off to a slow start with limited price action in the major currency pair. The NZD is the strongest with a 0.4% gain vs the greenback. The CHF is the weakest. The AUDUSD, GBPUSD, USDCAD USDJPY have changes of 0.08% or less. That isn't a lot of action to start the week.
The Yuan fixing was near 10 year low levels as the currency continues to weaken on slow growth and threat of trade tensions sapping more strength from the Chinese economy. The Shanghai index moved lower and is down near -1.5%. The Hang Seng opened up about 1% on the day but is trading around unchanged at the moment.
On the economic front, Japan retail sales for September was the only release. The sales for the month came in at -0.2% which was down from the August rise of 0.9% but as expected. The YoY number also came in as expected at +2.1% but was down from 2.7%. The BOJ will announce their interest rate decision on Wednesday. No change is expected of course. The question traders will be focused on is their projections on growth/inflation. Coming off a robust 3% GDP in Q2, the expectations are not so rosy in Q3. The -0.2% number for sales this month (consumption is 60% of growth) is not a great sign.
In Brazil, the voters elected Jair Bolsonaro, an antiestablishment candidate, to lead the country out of the economic, corruption and crime riddled malaise.
In the UK, little Brexit news but the UK of the Exchequer, Jeffrey Hammond, will present his budget later today.
IN the UK, net consumer credit and some housing data will be released. IN the US Personal Income and Spending for September will be released with expectations of 0.4% for both.
US stocks will also be a focus as the worst month since 2009 comes to a finish this week.
Below is a snapshot of the pip and % changes of the major pairs vs each other. Not a lot of movement to start the week.
