Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 27 May 2015

  • What is India's Gold Monetization Program, and what are its implications?
  • Ex Fed head Bernanke: Reasonably optimistic about China's soft landing
  • Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga: Will continue to pay close attention to exchange rates
  • Who are the top 10 FX banks? And who won the "the least fashionable award in town"?
  • Recap of BOJ's Iwata: Sees no need for further easing
  • China - Westpac MNI Consumer Sentiment for May: Unchanged at 111.1
  • BOJ Deputy Governor Iwata: Economy is on a gradual recovery path
  • Australia - Q1 Construction Work Done: -2.4% q/q (expected -1.4%)
  • China Industrial profits: +2.6% y/y for April (prior was -0.4%)
  • More comments from RBA's Lowe: Starting to see effect of APRA steps on home loans
  • Fed's Lacker: Repeats June a good time to begin considering raising interest rates
  • China Securities Journal: Chinese insurers cap their investments in stock marketIn the
  • HSBC cuts China 2015 growth forecast to 7.1% from 7.3%V
  • Australia - Westpac Leading index for April: +0.1% m/m (prior was -0.3% to 98)
  • Bank of Japan Minutes from April 30: Will continue easing until 2% inflation stable
  • China - Securities firms to raise collateral requirements for retail clients?
  • Citi on USD/JPY ... concerned on equity markets ... may lead to yen demand
  • Nomura on the Bank of Canada meeting tomorrow ... no change and neutral
  • Oil - Saudi the next big fracking boom? New tech reduces need for water
  • Goldman Sachs have spotted 2 of the biggest threats to the global economy
  • Fed head Yellen to skip this year's Jackson Hole meeting

We seemed set to get some decent moves in Asia today, but while a few started there was little follow through.

Comments from the Federal Reserve's lacker sent the USd a little higher (Fed's Lacker: Repeats June a good time to begin considering raising interest rates), but ... yep ... no follow through. EUR/USD dipped to session lows under 1.0870, but only briefly before ticking back up to around 80 (from earlier high around 90 ... so lacklustre range).

GBP and CHF followed similar sorts of patterns in tight ranges fro them as well.

USD/JPY kicked back to overnight highs, tipping 123.31 before dropping back towards 123.00.

AUD and NZD, a similar sort of story. AUD dipped under 0.7730, while NZD/USD made a low just under 0.7220 before both recovered to make new session highs (but not by much) while in relatively small ranges.