Forex news for Asia trading for Friday 9 April 2021
- South Korea to extend its coronavirus social distancing requirements for another 3 weeks
- Australia's largest population centre has paused all AstraZeneca vaccinations
- Japan's coronavirus advisory panel has agreed to extra virus measures for Tokyo
- China March inflation - CPI 0.4% y/y (vs. expected 0.3%) & PPI 4.4% y/y ( vs. expected 3.6%)
- RBA April 2021 Financial Stability Review
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.5409 (vs. yesterday at 6.5384)
- Recap of the remarks from San Fran Fed President Daly
- U.S. blacklists seven Chinese supercomputing entities over national security concerns
- ICYMI - Saudi oil minister expresses confidence OPEC+ made the right output decision
- UK to decide May 17 on permitting international travel
- Australia - AiG Services PMI for March 58.7 (prior 55.8)
- ICYMI - CME Group has hiked COMEX copper maintenance margins by 10.9%
- Here's what to watch to send USD/JPY back up again (112.50 possible)
- NZ data (ANZ Truckometer) shows heavy traffic in March +2.8% (vs. previous at +3.3%)
- Goldman Sachs warn of a potential 20% drop in New Zealand house prices
- New York Fed is looking at expanding access to a facility used to influence short-term interest rates
- Canadian media report Montreal will institute an 8pm curfew from Sunday
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 09 April 2021
There was a small gain for the USD but not quite across the major FX board. CAD, AUD, NZD slipped a few points against the dollar while USD/JPY is relatively stable. Once again though the ranges have been small only.
News flow was light and, given the small ranges, non-impactful. Coronavirus/vaccine news centred on tighter restrictions for Japan and South Korea while in Australia the vaccine rollout is encountering "clots" issues (the AstraZeneca vaccine is no longer recommended for under-50s and the country's largest population state has halted its use for all age groups temporarily). Speaking of Australia, the RBA issued its April edition of its (twice a year publication) Financial Stability Review in which it noted the possible impacts of loose policy (skyrocketing asset - read house - prices) but gave no indication it'd be taking any steps to address this.
China released its March CPI and PPI figures, subdued consumer-level inflation contrasted with quite strong producer level inflation. Chinese shares slipped further on the session as I post.
Regional equities were a mixed bag:
Japan's Nikkei +0.4%, Topix +0.6%
China's Shanghai Composite -0.8%
Hong Kong's Hang Seng -0.7%
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 -0.3%
