Forex news for Asia trading Friday 4 September 2015

  • South Korea cuts growth forecast ... cites risks from China’s slowdown

  • Oil ... crunch time on asset sales for Canada’s struggling oil producers

  • UBS adviser says Chinese stocks are nowhere near bottoming

  • Hong Kong August PMI 44.4, to its lowest since April 2009

  • Russian pres. Putin: Rosneft plans to invest 1.3tln rbls in Russia's far east

  • Japan data: July Labor Cash Earnings +0.6% y/y (expected +2.0%)

  • Fed's Kocherlakota: US experiencing slow, moderate growth

  • Fed's Kocherlakota says again he thinks the Fed shouldn't rasie rates this year

  • Japan economy minister Amari: China's economic fundamentals stable

  • Trading losses? Just do the opposite! (And why that probably won't work)

  • FT: China risks repeating the errors of Japan

  • If other central banks ease further, does that make it easier for the Fed to hike?

  • Draghi coos like a dove ... Yellen asks "Why’d you have to do that this month, Mario?"

  • Bloomberg with G20 draft communique ... possible tightening a source of uncertainty

  • Lloyds assesses the impact of risk from natural, and man-made, threats

  • S&P on Iraq: Faces security, institutional risks among the highest of all rated sovereigns

  • Panel of ex-Fed officials say no rate hike will come at September meeting

  • Trade ideas thread for Friday 4 September 2015

  • G20 Communique likely to include usual reference for need to avoid currency manipulation

  • Austria's finmin Schelling: Expects 2016 GDP growth around 1.5% Dijsselbloem says without convergence EU integration is at risk

China was closed for a holiday today, will reopen on Monday. But, whoever decides these things has a strange sense of humour, scheduling the Hong Kong PMI for today. It came in looking like death warmed up (not by much), at 44.4. Check with your Chinese friends about how auspicious that number is.

Yet more evidence, if any is needed, of the economic slowdown there.

Yen crosses were big movers today, all a lot lower.

The Nikkei started the day with a bounce, but it lasted mere minutes before it copped a thrashing. S&P futures on Globex opened with their own thrashing. The Nikkei has fallen heavily, down more than a percent and a half as I update:

The S&P hasn't done quite as badly. But it ain't pretty. A bright spot was the ASX today ... but that soon got rubbed out. Its lower as i update also.

Enough with equities.

The impact in FX was a sharply higher yen.

USD/JPY has dropped nearly a big figure from early highs, and yen crosses have suffered alongside.

EUR/JPY found tepid support around 133.30, which soon turned into a rout and its under 132.80 as I update.

AUD fell too, driven along by stops in AUD/JPY as well as a raft of bids around 0.6990 and thereabouts that suddenly were not there any more. Its been as low as around 0.6962 and under, but AUD/JPY is where the sharper move was ... down near 100 points on the session. NZD is lower also.

USD/CHF is lower, but EUR/USD has been held relatively steady, EUR buying here offset by EUR/JPY sellers. Cable is down around 25 points from early highs.

Oil has been more less sideways, with a little chop. Gold is marginally down, again with some choppiness.

Still to come ... its NFP day!

  • Infograph: Non-Farm Payroll preview
  • Non-farm payrolls preview by the numbers for the August 2015 employment report