Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 4 January 2018
- JPM expect USD/JPY range of 112-113 this week, even through NFP Friday
- SG says the USD to fall in 2018 - trades and risk
- More on Jeremy Grantham warns on entering blow-off phase of very long bull market
- Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda says economy showing steady growth
- ANZ may have spotted and named two currency manipulators
- Japan finance minister Aso is bullish on wages
- China: Caixin PMIs (Dec) Services 53.9 (expected 51.8, prior 51.9); Composite 53.0(prior 51.6)
- JPMorgan lifts its 2018 economic growth forecast for China to 6.7%
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.5043 (vs. yesterday at 6.4920)
- Sth Korea central bank head says will respond when won moves are too big
- Japan Nikkei/Markit Manufacturing PMI (final, December): 54.0 (vs. flash 54.2)
- Merrill Lynch blocks clients, financial advisers from bitcoin
- One for the USD/CAD traders - large option expiry coming up Friday to watch for
- Asia morning update - USD/JPY testing its overnight high (thanks, Janet)
- US Nonfarm payroll data is due on Friday - here is a preview of what to expect
- Australia - AiG's Services PMI (December): 52.0 (prior 51.7)
- EUR/USD - what the market is waiting for, and some short-term technical analysis
- Australia data - CBA services and composite PMIs for December: 55.1 & 55.5
- M5.4 earthquake off the coast of Japan (well off main islands)
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Dollar recovers. Fed minutes back gradual rate hikes
- Trade ideas thread - Thursday 4 January 2018
- Oil - private inventory data reports smaller than expected draw in US crude stocks
- Economic calendar due from Asia today - Australia, China, BOJ
- The stock market trifecta. All three indices are closing at record levels.
During the US afternoon the big dollar got a pretty much across the board boost from the release of the Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee December meeting minutes.
- USDJPY nearly makes it to the 100 hour MA after minutes
- US dollar ticks higher after FOMC minutes
- FOMC Minutes: Most backed continued gradual rate hikes
As Asia became more active in early Tokyo and into early Singapore and Hong Kong the USD/JPY gained further, breaking through its overnight high and trading up to just under 112.80. There was little fresh to drive it, the post-minutes buyers had the upper hand.
There was also action in the AUD and NZD through the day here. I noted early the stop losses clustered lower in the Australian dollar, with bids sitting under these, and the moves played out as expected. AUD/USD traded to lows circa 0.7815 and then spent the balance of the session recovering to be around its day's highs as i post circa 0.7835. Not too much of a range, but we take what we get, right?
NZD/USD played out a similar sort of pattern, down under 0.7075 at one stage and then recovering to be also close to its session highs back above 0.7100 as I post.
We got some Australian data today (see bullets above), better PMIs, but this lower tier data is not generally an immediate FX market mover.
EUR, CHF, GBP ... well these were not too active at all. Narrow ranges for these and little changed net on the session.
The CAD had a wiggle against the USD, losing ground early but retracing to be barely net changed.
Gold is a touch softer again (it was down during the overnight and has slip a little more). Bitcoin has had, for it, a subdued sort of range.
