Forex news for Asia trading Monday 24 August 2015

Monday, as it unfolded (start at the bottom and read up):

  • Xinhua says China stocks have joined the global panic selloff
  • China - Shanghai Composite closes for its lunch break barely off its day's lows
  • China's State Council to allow farmers to use land, property as collateral for loans
  • FT on China stocks ... "equity market is close to free-fall"
  • Bank of Korea denies report it sold USD to intervene
  • Japan PM Abe: Accepts hitting BOJ inflation target deadline difficult given oil price fall
  • China - Shanghai Composite down more than 5%
  • RBNZ Dep Gov Spencer: Investor LVR limits to reduce financial system risk

0130GMT, China stocks open

  • China stockmarket opening indications - Shanghai Comp to open down 3.8%
  • Japan economy minister Amari: Expects China's economy to settle down
  • People's Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at 6.3862
  • Japan PM Abe: Economy in a positive cycle, not in deflation
  • Barclays on their case for staying short EUR/USD
  • Nikkei on 5 month low this morning
  • China - Financial News reports the PBOC aims to keep appropriate liquidityConfederation of British Industry has upgraded its UK economic growth forecasts
  • Yen ... lovin' it ('Gap' filled, now fresh USD/JPY lows). Oh, AUD and NZD getting whacked
  • Summers says the if Fed raises rates this year it will threaten all its major objectives
  • Big falls in Middle East stock markets on Sunday. Chicken or egg?
  • USD/JPY - the not quite so early as before opening indication
  • Trade ideas thread for Monday 24 August 2015
  • China - main state pension fund allowed to invest in stocks for the first time
  • China PBOC RRR cut ... on its way says the WSJ. By the end of September ...
  • Monday morning FX - 24 August 2015 - foreign exchange prices, early indications

Weekend:

  • North and South Korea still on high alert as talks resume
  • Spanish economy to continue growing at around 1% in Q3
  • IMF official says it's "totally premature" to talk about a crisis in China
  • ForexLive Webinar: Having trouble believing what you see in your Forex Trading?
  • All quiet on the Chinese front as PBOC leaves rates on hold
  • Schaeuble anticipates a €5bln budget surplus for Germany in 2015
  • North and South Korean officials now meeting to discuss current situation

It was a reasonably quiet news-flow weekend and Monday session.

But, hey, who needs news?

Huge movements today during the Asian Monday session. It started with an ominous sign from the yen, which started to strengthen pretty much for the get go this morning. It managed a bounce after the early 40 or so point drop, covering nearly all of its 'gap' (I posted a chart of the very early movements here) before settling sideways for a while.

Meanwhile, EUR/USD had gained a little, too, while AUD, NZD and CAD all started selling off from more or less the Sydney open.

It was really the opening of the Chinese stock markets, though, that were the event of note today. They opened with big gaps down (China stockmarket opening indications - Shanghai Comp to open down 3.8%) and never showed signs of recovering.

EUR, JPY, CHF all continued higher against the USD. Cable maintained its seeming lack of interest in the whole sordid thing, wobbling a bit but is more or less unchanged as I update.

AUD, NZD and CAD all bared their teeth, and got kicked in them. AUD/USD tested down toward 0.7200 while NZD/USD dipped very briefly under 0.6580.

As I said, news flow was light, it wasn't a news driven market. We did get a bit of encouraging news over the weekend and early in the session (China - main state pension fund allowed to invest in stocks for the first time, China - Financial News reports the PBOC aims to keep appropriate liquidity), but if it did encourage the bidders they were filled in very quickly and heavily indeed. The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend, too, that there is a rate &/or RRR cut in the works, but not yet.

Long story short - a huge slide in the Chinese markets, with the Shanghai Composite down 8.5% at the close of its morning session (it reopens at 0500GMT for the afternoon session).

  • Shenzen down 7.6%
  • CSI300 down 8.6%
  • ChiNext down 8.1%

Contagion was the word of the day ... US equity futures were all heavy (Globex trading taking the S&P down around 3%, NASDAQ futures down 3.5%, Dow futures down around 3%. Asian equity indices have all been smashed lower today, Nikkei down around 4%, HK's Hang Seng down more than 4%

Oil (WTI) is down towards $39, gold has been choppy but is little changed on the session.