Forex news for Asia trading Monday 25 May 2015

Monday:

  • Another China corporate bond default coming up?
  • Westpac: AUD/USD to range 0.785 to 0.80, then heading to 0.73
  • Japan trade balance for April: Y -53.4bn (expected Y -351.1bn)
  • China Securities Journal: China economy may reach bottom in H2
  • Goldman Sachs cuts commodities index forecast outlook
  • Spanish election loser gets a job at ForexLive! Manual Refresh is back!
  • Reuters poll: Most Japan firms support next planned sales tax hike
  • Friday: IMF says BOJ should be ready to provide more monetary stimulus
  • Weekend press: Greece narrowly rejects call to stop paying IMF debt, nationalize banks
  • Greece threatens again to default on loan repayments due to IMF
  • Spain exit polls - Ruling People's Party wins most votes, fall short of majority
  • BOJ Gov Kuroda weekend comments - expects inflation to reach 2% around 1st 6 mths of 2016
  • UK press - UK GDP growth expected to be revised higher

Weekend

  • Morgan Stanley FX outlooks for the week ahead
  • If you believe in demographics, you have to believe in Africa
  • Goldman Sachs: ECB are going to stick to the program, but will verbally intervene
  • Spanish election this weekend
  • State Bank of Pakistan cuts rates to lowest in 42 years
  • Bank sends a "clear signal" it will probably raise rates in July
  • German FinMin Schaeuble: No need for more aid to Greece- Athens must tackle problem itself
  • Russian PM Medvedev says Russia to adopt tough position if Ukraine defaults
  • What's your trading desk set up?
  • Draghi urges the Eurozone to unite for economic reform
  • Deflation: An abject failure in the BOE's monetary policy
  • Bank of England comes clean after it's busted on Brexit research

Some movement in the EUR/USD early in the session, with stop loss sellers triggered below 1.0990. We got down towards 1.0965 before bouncing back to just under 1.1100. Its been quiet and sideways since that early flurry.

USD/JPY moved higher during the Tokyo morning. It showed little response to the trade data (a smaller than expected trade deficit with a jump in exports and a decline in imports) but soon began to tick up afterwards. USD/JPY tested above 121.75 but didn't follow through any further. Buyers outweighed sellers on approach to the Tokyo fix time, but topped out soon after and settled just a fraction lower.

USD/CHF traded as high as just above 0.9450 in the early going, and settled around 0.9430 and just below.

Oil was quiet, a touch softer but not much in it at all. Gold as more or less sideways also, not much in it.

AUD and NZD are little net changed on the session too.

And ...

  • FX market holidays all over the place today - here is who is open and who is closed

Still to come:

  • Federal Reserve speakers coming up during the Europe and US timezones