Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 9 December 2015

  • Reported 'Bitcoin founder' home raided by Australian police
  • One trader's $3.5 million stock market bet ... will it come good?
  • Got top 10 FX ideas for 2016? SocGen trumps everyone with their top 16!
  • Preview of the RBNZ monetary policy announcement
  • Paris exclusive fashion news - Get a ForexLive T-shirt. Offer expires on Thursday!
  • China finance ministry: To cut export taxes on pig iron and steel billet from Jan 1 2016
  • China November CPI 1.5% y/y (expected 1.4%) and PPI -5.9% y/y (-6.0%)
  • PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.4140
  • Wall Street Journal reports Dow Chemical, Dupont said to be in merger talks
  • Australia data - October Home Loans: -0.5% m/m (expected -1.0%)
  • Global miner to slash costs, cut 85,000 jobs
  • Japan data - October Machine Orders: +10.7% m/m (expected -1.5%)
  • Australia data: Westpac Consumer Confidence for December: -0.8% m/m (prior +3.9%)
  • Forex system development workshop starts tomorrow
  • Oil - American Petroleum Institute (API) data - Inventories fall 1.9 million bbls
  • Gundlach says its possible the Fed 'pulls another Lucy and the football"
  • Trade ideas thread for Wednesday 9 December 2015
  • BOC head Poloz: Canada quite far from needing extraordinary stimulus
  • Technical preview: NZD awaits the fate of the RBNZ decision

Oil saw some early movement with a surprise inventory fall contributing to a few cents gain thats been sustained throughout the session here.

Japanese data (machine orders for October) showed once again a stronger than expected pick up for capex. Net on the session the USD/JPY has lost a few points while EUR/JPY is little changed.

China CPI and PPI for November were the next global focus, the CPI coming in ever so slightly better than expected, as did PPI. The PPI at -5.9% y/y and its 45th consecutive monthly fall is still a very, very deflationary result. Nevertheless, there were comments around that the data was a positive. I'd prefer 'slightly less terrible' than 'improvement' but I'm not going to quibble about semantics.

News also from China of reduction in import and export taxes for certain goods are positives for reform there. The yuan mid-point set from the People’s Bank of China was at its weakest since 2011 today.

AUD/USD is barely changed on the session, it traded briefly above 0.7235 and then down toward 0.7205 and is now more or less mid range as I update.

NZD gained early, not sustaining above 0.6655 and falling toward 0.6620. The RBNZ announcement is due at 2000GMT Wednesday (preview), with Governor Wheeler's press conference to follow.

EUR/USD is a little higher on the session, just above 1.0900 and close to its session high. USD/CHF meanwhile is little changed, ditto for cable.

Regional equities with Shanghai closed for the lunch break:

  • Nikkei -0.82%
  • Shanghai +0.65%
  • HK -0.25%
  • ASX -0.50%

Still to come:

  • Preview of the RBNZ monetary policy announcement