Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 9 January 2018
- 'Minor tweak' from the BOJ and the yen gain, but just wait until the real thing
- Australia building approvals responses coming in - fears ... misplaced
- PBOC Governor Zhou - 2018 GDP likely to slow to 6.4%
- Commerz on what will drive EUR/CHF
- Australia building approvals responses coming in - risk of sharp correction lower
- AUD getting another leg up
- The significant option expiries for Tuesday
- USD/JPY selling off - follows BOJ reducing JGB purchase amount
- US employment data due Tuesday - preview of JOLTS
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4968 (vs. yesterday at 6.4832)
- Bank of Japan cuts its purchases of JGBs today
- Japan finance minister Aso says stocks rising at a fast pace
- US regulator has concerns about liquidity and valuation of bitcoin futures
- Australia data - ANZ Job Ads (December): -2.3% m/m (prior +1.5%)
- Australia - Building Approvals (November): +11.7% m/m (vs. expected -1.3%)
- More UK data - Barclaycard's consumer spending +4% y/y
- UK data - BRC Sales Like-for-Like (December) +0.6% y/y (vs. expected +0.3%)
- Japan data - Nov. Labor Cash Earnings 0.9% y/y (vs. expected +0.6%)
- China press - Analysts say yuan likely to keep strengthening
- MOAR EUR/USD - Barclays says scope for near term consolidation
- Australia - ANZ Roy Morgan weekly consumer confidence: 122.0 (vs. prior 116.5)
- EUR/USD: "A pause seems reasonable"
- Australia - preview of November building approvals (data due today)
- Also on the agenda today - South and North Korea to hold talks
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 9 January 2018
- ForexLive Americas FX news wrap: Euro gently slides below 1.20
- Fed's Rosengren again - more comments on inflation
- NAFTA negotiators say they are working towards a result by the end of January
- S&P and Nasdaq higher and close at record levels. Dow lags/down.
- S&P hikes its outlook for US GDP growth this year to 2.8% (from 2.6%)
The Bank of Japan scaled back its purchases of long-dated JGBs at their scheduled buying operation today, which will act as a boost to longer dated Japan yields (and diminish the spread to the US)
- Bank of Japan cuts its purchases of JGBs today
- 'Minor tweak' from the BOJ and the yen gain, but just wait until the real thing
The action from the BOJ also increased talk of 'tapering', though the Bank, through its actions (not its words, the 80tln JGB buy target remains as policy even though it is irrelevant and ignored) and ForexLive (over the course of many posts) have been warning of this for a long time now.
The response from the yen was not swift but it did come, USD/JPY and yen crosses all slid lower. The decline in USD/JPY was added to by stop loss sellers below 112.90 and then further below 112.70.
Earlier in the session we had some movement from the Australian dollar. It traded higher in the wake of a huge surprise beat for building permits (see bullets above).
The big gains were attributed to high rise approvals, which are notoriously volatile ('lumpy') so the expectation of an unwind to come in months ahead did serve to limit the gains somewhat. NZD/USD is little changed after a minor wobble or two,
EUR and CHF are both little changed with not fresh leads for these. Cable has net ticked a few points to the better on the session.
