The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Tuesday August 20, 2013.
(ps. I stole the idea for the headline to this post from Mungo’s comment to this thread)
- The August 6 RBA monetary policy meeting minutes were released today, the big headline was that “members agreed that the Bank should neither close off the possibility of reducing rates further, nor signal an imminent intention to reduce rates further”, but there was plenty more. Summary and full text.
- RBNZ governor Graeme Wheeler gave a speech: “Explaining the role of macro-prudential policy.” Sounds boring, but he said the NZD was overvalued and sent it down further during a volatile session. Summary and link to full text.
- New Zealand 2 year inflation expectations rose to 2.4% in Q3 (vs. 2.06% prior)
- Japan’s LDP tax panel’s Noda says the sales tax rise in inevitable
There was not a lot of data released in the Asian timezone today, so most focus centred on the RBA release of August 6 minutes and the speech from RBNZ governor Wheeler. Neither disappointed.
The AUD and NZD had fallen during the overnight session and both extended their fall as Asian markets ticked toward opening. The AUD triggered stops below 0.9100 ahead of the RBA minutes release, and on the release the AUD popped back to highs of 0.9115/20 (briefly) as the market digested what appeared to confirmation that the RBA’s previous easing bias had switched to neutral. But sellers were still around and the AUD was taken back below 0.91 and to new session lows, where it is as I write this wrap.
NZD, too, fell, and was hit harder once Wheeler started to speak. Not only did he talk down the value of the NZD (as is his habit), the measures he outlined will effectively postpone interest rate hikes in New Zealand, making the NZD slightly less attractive at the margin.
The yen was the only other mover today, USD/JPY trading to 97.83/88 and back to 97.52/57 for a nevertheless tight range.
