Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 4 March 2015
- India - Reserve bank of India cuts rates
- ECB preview: The market awaits clarification on QE details.
- Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Kuroda comments on fiscal matters
- Interactive Brokers stands ground on client negative balances
- Preview of the Federal Reserve Beige Book due Wednesday
- China - HSBC/Markit Services PMI for February: 52.0 (prior was 51.8)
- Japan - Markit/JMMA Services PMI for February: 48.5 (prior was 51.3)
- Comments from Federal Reserve's Yellen on bank regulation and supervision
- BOJ's Miyao: Japan's economic fundamentals have improved over past 2 years
- Australia Q4 GDP - more
- Australia - Q4 GDP: +0.5% q/q (expected +0.6%)
- UK - British Retail Consortium (BRC) Shop Price Index -1.7% y/y (vs. expected -1.2%)
- Reserve Bank of Australia says ASIC to investigate pre-announcement market moves yesterday
- What time is the RBA announcement?
- BNP - Greek calm is temporary ... payment deadlines in March about to take centre stage
- Australia - February AIG Performance of Services Index: 51.7 (prior 49.9)
- New Zealand - Value of all buildings (sa) +0.3% q/q (expected +1.0%)
A day of general US dollar strength in Asia, but not one for the record books by any means.
EUR/USD is a few points lower from late US trading, as is GBP, AUD and NZD. USD/CHF on it highs for the session as I write, as is USD/JPY (barely).
Gold is punching above its weight, on its highs against the USD as I type.
Most volatility in the majors was in the AUD, which spiked down on the release of the Q4 GDP data, which came in pretty much around not-very-high expectations. No sooner had it spiked lower than it jumped. It drifted back a little then, settled sideways and then succumbed to the general US dollar strength, back below 0.7810 as I write.
India cut rates outside a scheduled meeting for the second time this year (see bullets, above).
