Forex news for Asia trading Friday 2 October 2015

Pre-NFP:

Some minor moves in Asia today with little in the way of market-impacting news during the session.

From Japan we got the second part of the Bank of Japan's Q3 Tankan report, today it was business inflation expectations. These fell from the previous quarter. This will not be welcome news to the Japanese administration and, at the margin, is another indicator in favour of arguments that the BOJ will ease further again soon. On the other side of the ledger, household spending data from Japan today was much stronger than expected, which argues against further easing. The impact on the yen during the session of this 'push-me pull-me' news though, was minor at best. USD/JPY is around 20 points up from session lows as I update.

Australian retail sales data came in on expectations (for the m/m), but the yearly trend is still soft. Spending on household goods, which is a discretionary item and a key driver, was weak.

AUD/USD did manage a gain after the data but ran into sellers above 0.7050 and is well lower as I update. it fell 40 or so points from the post data high and is mid-range as i update.

Cable is slightly stronger on the session. EUR/USD popped above 1.1200 but hasn't sustained, back near session lows around 1.1180 as I write.

Gold is down a couple of dollars, oil is a quarter higher.

Regional stocks:

  • Nikkei +0.3%
  • HK +2.73%
  • ASX -0.7%

Shanghai ... China is closed for the Golden Week holidays and will reopen on October 8