Forex news for Asia trading for Friday 6 November 2020
- Election update - Trump leads by 26.3K in Pennsylvania
- Australia's Trade Minister says reports on China trade bans only rumours
- Election update - Trump leads by 1,900 in Georgia
- US media report Russian President Putin to resign due to failing health
- Coronavirus - UK tightens restrictions on arrivals from Denmark
- Goldman Sachs forecast a US headline NFP of +500k
- USD/JPY seen as low as 102
- Japan PM Suga says won't comment on FX levels (then comments on FX levels)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.6290 (vs. yesterday at 6.6895)
- FX option expiries for Friday November 6 at the 10am NY cut
- Pennsylvania's AG says vote count results will be 'soon'
- RBA SoMP - says not considering a further reduction interest rates
- Twitter kicks Trump when he's down - could be banned if he loses the election.
- Trump speaking - nothing of substance
- US Special Counsel investigating Trump's campaign-related activities
- Japan wages data for September. Labour cash earnings -0.9% y/y (vs. expected -1.1%)
- Latest projections have Biden winning Pennsylvania by circa 40,000 votes
- Trump's legal case to stop counting in Pennsylvania is not going well
- Bitcoin hits its highest since January 2018
- Pennsylvania official says several hundred thousand ballots still to be counted - most will be by Friday
- US Senate voting update. We may have a result by ... January?
- Biden speaking - feeling confident, has no doubt he will win
- Stocks up for the 4th straight day. NASDAQ gains 2.5%
The counting, and wait, continued in the US during their evening. There is still no sign of a confirmed result and election pundits have not shifted from their call of Electoral College vote allocations (most have Biden 264, Trump 214). The required number to take the White House is 270.
Biden is approaching wins in key states, narrowing the gap significantly in Pennsylvania (the state has 20 College votes) from around 100,000 at around 4pm ET (US time) to the latest update of 26.3K. If the surge for Biden continues it appears likely he will have cemented a win there by around 4 to 5am ET.
Other races have narrowed also, Georgia is nearly line ball (Biden claying back a deficit in that state also) while Trump is creeping up from behind in Arizona. The money is still firmly on Biden to win.
In summary, a quick snapshot as I post:
- GA Trump + 1.7K (trending to Biden)
- NV Biden +11.4K (trending to Biden)
- PA Trump +26.3K19 (trending to Biden)
- AZ Biden +46,7K (trending to Trump)
Both Trump and Biden addressed the media. Biden spoke earlier of the two, expressing his confidence in the process and that he and Harris will be the winners. He urged patience as electoral workers continued their task. Trump spoke a little later, sticking the theme that it was all so unfair, he feels cheated, and what have you. All three of Trump's court challenges failed.
Currencies did not extend their gains against the dollar here in Asia today, with some pullbacks (compared to their upmoves in Europe/US time the retraces have been small).
Bitcoin, on the other hand, posted gains towards $16,000US before retracing back to $15,500.
