Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Thursday 8 February 2018
- USD strength spreading beyond USD/CNY surge
- China January trade balance lower surplus than expected - quick take
- Just waking up, wondering why NZD and yuan are lower?
- All the Bank of England previews in one place - meeting Thursday 8 February 2018
- China trade balance for January: USD terms follow up now
- Option expiries of note for Thursday 8 February 2018
- China trade balance for January: CNY 135.8bn (expected CNY 330.00bn)
- Goldman Sachs "Correction dissection" - drivers & implications of the equity drawdown
- NZD slowly down further to fresh session low ... RBNZ post-decision comments weigh
- AUD traders - Reminder, China trade data due whenever they damn well feel like it
- Bank of England meet today (Super Thursday!) - preview
- BOJ's Suzuki: Important to maintain powerful monetary easing
- Poll suggests GBP gains are nearly over
- Survey shows UK firms raise starting salaries by most since June 2015
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.2822 (vs. yesterday at 6.2882)
- RBNZ's McDermott: If NZD TWI moves up, expect different language from the Bank
- Australia - NAB Q4 Business Confidence: 6 (prior 7)
- Japan press - Regulator to conduct more cryptocurrency exchange inspections
- RBNZ's McDermott: Expect NZD to ease as Federal Reserve raises rates
- Fed's Williams: If economy continues to add 2m jobs this year, see inflation pressures
- More on Canada PM Trudeau NAFTA comments (no deal better than bad deal)
- UK RICS house price balance for January : 8% (expected 5%)
- Japan BoP Current Account for December: ¥ 797.2bn (expected ¥ 1056.9bn)
- Here are two guys saying Bitcoin goes to $320,000 (nudge, nudge, Wink, Wink)
- Heads up for a little later - Kuroda speaking from 0620 GMT
- Canada PM Trudeau on NAFTA - needs to updated and improved
- Fed's Williams says he sees productivity growth continuing moderate
- Keep an eye out for more CTA deleveraging driving 'risk' lower
- US led coalition says it carried out attacks against Syrian pro-regime forces
- Fed's Williams speech is little changed to his February 2 speech
- George Soros has a (cunning) secret plan to thwart Brexit
- "21st Century Fox tops profit estimates as cable shines" ... wait, no, not that cable
- Gundlach warns Low yields/low vol paradigm unwind will be turbulent, not just a few days
- Add this to the economic data calendar for today - China January trade data
- Russia penetrated US voter systems - report
- Forexlive Americas FX wrap: Buyers take the USD higher as correction continues
- Here is what NAB is watching for in the Australian data due today
- Watch out ... US equity futures slipping a little more in late trade
- Responses to the RBNZ decision coming in
- RBNZ Spencer says not concerned about the NZD, comfortable where it is
- RBNZ Spencer not actively monitoring cryptocurrency markets
- Volatile session ends with selling. Major indices end lower on the day
- RBNZ's Spencer says no reason to change forecasts after equity volatility
- NAFTA comments from the US - Cornyn says encouraged Trump won't leave NAFTA
- Forex technical analysis: EURGBP rotates back below 100/200 day MA
- Economic calendar due from Asia today (more RBNZ to come, and BOJ)
- RBNZ keeps OCR rate unchanged at 1.75%
US afternoon trading in the NZD took its cue from the RBNZ Monetary Policy Statement, marking down the NZD in response. A real quick take on the Statement would be:
- There was no change in the guidance from the Bank
- But there was a slight dovish shift in assessment
RBNZ Governor Spencer's news conference followed soon after and the further comments later from Assistant Governor McDermott. There was some subtle jawboning of the currency (lower) and the market responded, talking NZD lower still (not by too much, but under 0.7200) (see bullets above for more ... but here they are here too ... you're welcome!):
- NZD slowly down further to fresh session low ... RBNZ post-decision comments weigh
- RBNZ's McDermott: If NZD TWI moves up, expect different language from the Bank
- RBNZ's McDermott: Expect NZD to ease as Federal Reserve raises rates
- Responses to the RBNZ decision coming in
- RBNZ Spencer says not concerned about the NZD, comfortable where it is
- RBNZ Spencer not actively monitoring cryptocurrency markets
- RBNZ's Spencer says no reason to change forecasts after equity volatility
- And, Bloomberg have a rundown here if you'd prefer: RBNZ in 'Central Bank Nirvana' Even as Inflation Undershoots
The other mover on the day was the Chinese yuan, USD/CNH had been ticking higher but surged after release of China trade figures (for January) showed a big miss on the surplus. Exports were up, imports up too ... but HUGE. The caveat is the Lunar New Year which skews the January and February results each year ... the cavet did not stop the CNH move though:
Also of note for yuan weakness was the story that China revives QDLP outbound investment scheme
Stop loss buying was triggered above 6.3250-odd and a move above 6.3750 ensued. As I update other currencies are a little heavier against the USD after a quiet session Gold down also.
Still to come is Super Thursday in the UK: