Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 21 May 2015

  • Australian banks are scaling back property investment loan discounts
  • New Zealand Credit card spending for April: +7.1% y/y (prior +5.2%)
  • Preview of the BOJ monetary policy decision, due Friday 22 May 2015 out of Tokyo
  • S&P say NZ budget will have no impact on ratings, outlook
  • New Zealand budget: Projects 2014/15 budget deficit of NZ$648m
  • MNI China Business Sentiment Indicator for May: 49.7 (prior was 48.8)
  • Flash HSBC China manufacturing PMI for May: 49.1 (expected 49.3)
  • Flash Japan Markit/JMMA Manufacturing PMI for May: 50.9 (expected 50.3)
  • Australia - Consumer Inflation Expectations for May: 3.6% (prior was 3.4%)
  • Xinhua: Chinese Premier Li Keqiang says can meet 2015 GDP of around 7% growth target
  • Japan Buying Foreign Bonds, Y 1099.2Bn (plus, the rest of this data)
  • Deutsche Bank: USD/JPY to 125 by end of the year
  • USD/JPY technical analysis - Citi goes long
  • Australia overnight press: China investment into iron ore expansion
  • What we really need is a new 'trade of the decade' ... so how about the China stockmarket?
  • Yen - Nikkei reports on the BOJ meeting today - BOJ may raise its outlook on the economy

Not a lot of movement across currencies today to report, but not zero either.

EUR, GBP and CHF all managed small gains against the USD, around 30 or so points for each on little news flow. A little post-FOMC Minutes USD wiggle is pretty much it.

USD/JPY ticked a little higher pre-Tokyo but gave back its small gain, and more, as the Japanese morning progressed. Again, little news flow, but we did see another improvement in the manufacturing PMI (flash reading), another sign to add to the early signs of improvement in the economy. The Bank of Japan met today and tomorrow, and while no change in policy is expected from the meeting there is some chatter that the Bank may upgrade their economic assessment.

AUD and NZD wren't very much more active. Both tracked a little higher on the session. The NZ Budget, while delaying again the long-promised surplus, still painted a reasonably robust macroeconomic picture. AUD/USD encountered sellers again above 0.7900 while the kiwi didn't manage to move above 0.7330. Both are near session highs as I update.

Oil moved higher on the session, as did gold to a lesser extent.