Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 18 August 2015

China:

  • Reuters: China to quicken tax rebate payment to support exports
  • Yuan devaluation ... Weather the short-term pain and Australia could be a winner
  • More on the huge PBOC money market funds injection today
  • China house prices for July: -3.7% y/y
  • People's Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at 6.3966

Australia

  • RBA Minutes: USD could appreciate further vs. AUD when Fed hikes
  • Australia - New Motor Vehicle Sales for July
  • Australia - ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence: 113.2 (prior 112.5)

New Zealand:

  • Russia removes ban on imports of dairy products from 29 companies in New Zealand
  • ASB expects RBNZ to cut & cut some more ... OCR to 2.5% by end 2015
  • World shipping in deep slump - dashing hope of quick recovery from global trade recession
  • Moody's updates global outlook - sees China GDP falling toward 6%

Market attention is turning away from the People's Bank of China's daily yuan reference rate setting as the devaluations of the yuan have seemingly come to an end. Today's setting was barely changed from yesterday's. Nevertheless, PBOC activity was again a focus today as the bank injected the most funds into the money market since January of 2014, easing liquidity conditions as it supports the yuan in the FX market.

It didn't help Chinese stocks, though. As I update the Shanghai Composite is down around 1.4%, while Shenzen is off around 1.2%. USD/CNY is a fraction higher following the rate set this morning, around 6.4122 as I write.

Also of note today was the RBA Minutes of the August monetary policy Board meeting, which didn't shed a whole lot of new information given we've since had the quarterly Statement of Monetary Policy released, which was much more detailed than Minutes could ever be, and an enlightening speech from Reserve Bank Assistant Governor (Economic) Christopher Kent (earlier comments arehere andhere). AUD/USD had a small dip on the release ... 10 points or so ... but recovered quickly and traded a few points higher. Its barely changed on the session as I update now.

NZD/USD was better bid. the market is focused on the dairy auction coming up during London time (starts at 1200GMT), but news of Russia lifting a ban on some dairy products didn;t do it any harm (see bullets, above).

EUR, CHF, GBP and even JPY ... little in the way of newsx, catalysts or movement.

Oil is a few cents lower on the session. Gold a few cents higher.

Still to come:

  • Coming up in the UK Tuesday morning - July CPI ... preview
  • Heads up for NZD traders - dairy auction in London time Tuesday