Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 7 May 2015

Australia:

  • Australia - April employment data, Employment Change: -2.9k (vs. +4k expected)
  • UBS on today's employment data: RBA on hold "for a prolonged period of time"
  • Goldman Sachs says its likely there will be more instances of the RBA telling market they think AUD too high
  • Australia - AiG construction PMI index for April: 47.0 (prior was 50.1)

More:

  • Japan Markit/JMMA Services PMI for April: 51.3 (prior was 48.4)
  • Warren Buffett called out for hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another
  • Goldman Sachs - FX markets appear to 'throwing a tantrum'
  • Overnight Fed speaker - George says extended period of low rates create vulnerabilities
  • Overnight Yellen: Stock market valuations appear "quite high"

Still to come - the UK election!

  • UK election on May 7 - where to get the earliest indication to the result
  • UK election on Thursday - here is everything you need to know
  • UK election - Times: The Queen to take control

It was a back to normal day for Asia FX today. Japan returned from their Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday holidays and currency rates went into hibernation.

EUR, GBP, CHF were all quietly rangebound against the US dollar.

EUR/JPY and USD/JPY, though, were a little more active, up around 30 points or so for each of them from session lows, but on little news.

AUD and NZD, though, were the stars.

For the first time since December Aussie bond yields climbed through 3% in volatile, choppy trade. The ASX remained soft.

AUD/USD drifted a little lower in the Australian morning ahead of employment data, hitting session lows around 0.7950 just prior to the data release. the headline came in at a weaker job gain than expected, and the headline unemployment rate edged higher, which saw the AUD immediately marked down to register lows around 0.7925. The revisions to the prior month, along with an expansion in hours worked though soon fed through and the AUD jumped back to around 0.7960. it chopped around here in a volatile fashion (it hit up above 0.7975 and just as quickly dropped back around 60) before beginning a steadier march higher which took it through earlier session highs and above 0.8 again, where it has stopped (as of writing).

NZD/USD followed a similar pattern, down to its lows a little earlier than the AUD and has now gained up past 0.7520 before halting (as of writing).

Gold chopped lower on the day, oil weaker also.