Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 29 September 2016

OIL - OPEC:

  • OIL - More responses to the OPEC announcement
  • OPEC oil 'deal' - responses continue to come in
  • Goldman Sachs says OPEC oil quotas could add 7 to 10 dollars a barrel
  • The key takeaway from the OPEC 'deal'
  • OIL - Iraq questioning the 'deal' - angling for higher output quota already
  • OPEC committee to report in November. Heads up, OPEC Nov. meeting is on the 30th
  • OPEC production cut "deal" - what we know so far

Federal Reserve speakers:

  • Fed's George: Does not want Fed to get behind on rate rises
  • More again from Fed's Mester: Politics does not enter into Fed decision making
  • More from Fed's Mester: Would be unproductive to overheat labor market
  • Fed's Mester: Raising rates now will prolong US economic expansion

The rest

  • IMF says Japan wages too low, corporate cash pile too high
  • China official: Impossible for China's external trade environment to improve this year
  • Credit Suisse have 3 Reasons why they still target EUR/USD at 1.15 in 3 Months
  • People’s Bank of China sets yuan reference rate at 6.6700 (vs. yesterday at 6.6681)
  • Japan Retail sales data (August): -2.1% y/y (expected -1.7%)
  • GBP/JPY jumps in early Tokyo
  • Trade ideas thread - Thursday 29 September 2016
  • RBNZ says NZD exchange rate is too high

The big news came before Asia walked in, but reverberations carried on through the session. OPEC announced they agreed to agree on a production cut, with details to be worked on by a committee. The committee will report in November and an announcement made at the next OPEC meeting (November 30).

As the session progressed, various responses came in, each recognising that there was little to the agreement but noting it is as significant anyway as it meant Saudi Arabia has at least apparently backed down a little from its previous hard line no output cut policy.

The price of oil rallied on the news from OPEC and has managed to maintain its gain though Asia. The yen weakened on the session too, yen crosses higher with USD/JPY trading as high as 100.40+. While EUR/USD and USD/CHF are little changed, EUR/JPY and CHF/JPY surged.

Cable had a good early session also, popping 1.3025/30 and racing 30-odd points. It retested above 1.3050 a little later and has since retraced to its earlier break level. GDP/JPY higher too.

AUD/USD popped 0.77, USD/CAD dipped a little further early.

You seeing a pattern here? Commodity currencies liked the OPEC agreement (to agree).

Data flow was light, Japanese retail sales for August fell for the 6th consecutive month (y/y) ... or for the first time in 3 months (m/m). Job vacancies in Australia increased, again.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei +1.42%
  • Shanghai +0.59%
  • HK +0.48%
  • ASX +0.94%

More: Australian data today - June to August Job Vacancies +4.6% q/q

  • Up 9.8% y/y
  • Private sector vacancies +4.5% q/q
  • Public sector +4.8% q/q