The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today
- China: HSBC Services PMI fell to 51.1 in April from 54.3 in March
- While the m/m Australia Retail Sales for March came in at a poor -0.4% (vs. +0.1% expected), inflation-adjusted retail sales for Q1 were better, at 2.2% (vs. 1.7% expected).
- A poor result from the Australia April ANZ Job Advertisement, in at -1.3% (vs. -0.5% prior, which, on the plus side, was revised up from a lower -1.5%)
- The latest Deloitte Access Economics “Investment Monitor” shows a looming downturn in resource-related investment, with projects being shelved and not replaced with new. If you are trading AUD, you really need to read this.
- Australia TD Securities/Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge 0.3% m/m (vs. prior 0.2% m/m)
- Australia TD Securities/Melbourne Institute Inflation Gauge 2.1% y/y (vs. prior 2.1% y/y)
- Australia’s federal Treasury has downgraded its economic growth forecast for this year and next by 0.25%, predicting a slowdown.
- Oskar Lafontaine, the German finance minister who launched the euro, has now called for its break-up in order to let southern Europe recover
With Japan and the UK on holiday today, those trading currencies seemed content to extend their own weekends, keeping movements very limited indeed.
USD/JPY had a 15 point range around 99.00.
EUR/USD popped a little in the morning, to 1.3135/40 and settled around 1.3120/25 for the balance of the day.
GBP/USD dipped to 1.5535/40 in the early New Zealand morning at a time of near-zero liquidity but then recovered to test New York highs just below 1.5600 before settling 1.5575/80.
NZD/USD had a quiet session, grinding away in a 20 points range either side of its Friday New York close.
AUD/USD moved quietly lower almost from the off today, then fell harder on poor March retail sales. The news and data flow for AUD has been very negative of late going into the RBA monetary policy meeting tomorrow. Economist surveys say not to expect any cut, while market pricing suggest a 55% probability of a cut.
