Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 6 August 2015

Australia

  • Westpac on the Australian employment data
  • Australian employment data - analyst reactions ('something for everyone')
  • Update on the AUD/USD after the employment data
  • Australian July Employment change: +38.5K (vs. +10K expected)
  • RBA's Ellis: We want to promote financial stability, resilience to financial shocks
  • Australia - NAB "expects the RBA has likely finished cutting Australian rates"
  • AUD/USD - technical analyst asks ... Correction complete, goes lower?
  • China Securities Journal & Shanghai Securities News headlines on the wires
  • German Govt Doubts 3rd Greek Deal Can Be Reached by Aug 20: Bild
  • Nikkei on the BOJ- "market players anticipate monetary easing continuing for some time"
  • Trade ideas thread for Super Thursday!

Hmmm. I heard today that it was a quiet session because of tomorrow's (Friday's) NFP report due from the US. Well, yeah .... that means we've still got another session like this due on the (Asian) Friday. Oh noes! Hope not.

We did get some movement, most notably from the AUD following the July employment report.

The headline was a huge beat, +38,000 jobs added as against +10K expected. But ...

  • The split full-time to part-time was about 1:2
  • Unemployment jumped, the rate to 6.3% vs. 6.1% expected
  • Participation jumped too, from 64.8% prior to 65.1%. The increase in participation was the largest since April 2001.

About the only thing the optimists and pessimist can agree on is expect plenty of revisions in next months' figures.

The Australian dollar jumped from around 0.7355 prior to the release to around 0.7390 (93-off the high I saw) on the headline, and then quickly gave it all back to get to new session lows in the hour or so following to under 0.7325. AUD/USD is barely 10 points off its lows as I update.

NZD/USD was a steady sort of gainer, up more than 40 points from overnight lows under 0.6500.

EUR/USD and EUR/JPY both had minor moves higher in the early Tokyo session. EUR/USD peaked out on the session a hair above 1.0930 (& EUR/JPY above 136.35), both then retracing back toward the figure (1.09 and 136 respectively). USD/JPY, meanwhile has drifted a few tics lower, but hardly anything in it.

Cable added about 25 or so points in a more or less steady tick higher through the session. USD/CHF mainly mirrored EUR/USD.

Oil and gold were both quiet.

Australian stocks were heavy, the banking sector lost ground on the news of an ANZ capital raising (capital buffer boost). Elsewhere in the region, the Nikkei gained (up not quite 1% as I write) ... Shanghai, Shenzen & Hong Kong indexes all lower by around half a percent.