Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 22 January 2019
- North Korea in fine form: "dimwit", "fanatic looking for a showdown"
- Canada press - US will proceed with extradition request for Huawei executive
- ANZ Brexit probabilities - hard exit assessed at 20% (would send GBP/USD toward 1.20)
- Goldman Sachs' Hatzius assesses chance of hard Brexit at 10%
- Goldman Sachs' Hatzius sees some stabilisation for China's economy in H2 2019
- IMF MD Lagarde on downgrading growth outlook - something about skiing
- Brexit - EBS's FX forwards and swaps trading to move to Amsterdam
- China's state planner says China not pursuing high-speed growth, but high-quality growth
- Japan's fin min Aso - Important FX rates are stable during the Golden Week holidays
- Australian financial press: Chinese CEOs target Australia as top growth market
- ICYMI - China President Xi spoke Monday, warned of sharp and serious dangers
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.7854 (vs. yesterday at 6.7774)
- Gold, the Bank of England, Venezuela ... and Deutsche Bank. A worthy movie plot.
- Report reveals an undeclared North Korean missile base headquarters
- Rolls-Royce in talks with China General Nuclear (can't wait to see the car!)
- South Korea Q4 GDP grows fastest in three quarters
- Reuters survey of Japanese business - trade tension concerns weigh on capex
- Australia weekly consumer sentiment drops to 115.7, from prior 116.8
- More on UK Labour Party second Brexit referendum option
- German government spokesman comments on the UK and Brexit
- UK Opposition Labour Party proposes option of second Brexit referendum
- President Trump - China's GDP results slowest since 1990, 'do a Real Deal'
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 22 January 2019
- New Zealand - BusinessNZ services PMI (December): 53.0 (prior 53.5)
The Asian day sparked to interest after midday in Tokyo. Prior to that, the session had been subdued with little forex movement. There were a few Brexit related headlines (see bullets above) but GBP was barely responsive. Lower tier data from Australia and New Zealand passed without much of a ripple also.
USD/JPY dropped from circa 109.65 towards 109.50, with stops under there rumoured. Buyers held it above 109.50 for a half hour or so before it finally hit lower. Canadian press reported the US will be proceeding with formal extradition proceedings against Huawei CFO Wanzhou Meng. This accelerated the yen gains (not that the range was large against the USD), but also saw 'risk' currencies lose ground which has resulted in reasonable downsides for yen crosses here. Equities slid a little also.
Still to come:
