The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today, Wednesday May 22
- The BOJ announcement consisted of steady policy, nothing new of much significance was expected, and that was what was delivered. We now await the press conference from BOJ head Kuroda at 0630GMT. Summary of main points from the announcement. Full text is here.(PDF)
In other news bullets today:
- Japan Merchandise Trade Balance for April is -Y879.9B (vs. expected of -Y620.6B)
- Japan Adjusted Merchandise Trade for April is -Y764.4B (vs. expected of -Y602.9B)
- Japan Merchandise Trade Imports for April 9.4% y/y (vs. expected of 6.7%)
- Japan Merchandise Trade Exports for April 3.8% y/y (vs. expected of 5.4%)
- Australia: Westpac Consumer Confidence for May: -7.0% (vs. a fall of 5.1% in April)
- Australia: The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics report, Resources and Energy Major Projects, was released today showing further deterioration in capex plans (link to full report at summary link)
AUD/USD was the most active today, falling from near overnight highs after weaker consumer sentiment figures from Westpac (see bullets, above). It did find support from 0.9775/80 but settled into a narrow range around 0.9790.
EUR/USD ticked off new highs compared with its overnight session but never made a serious attempt at 1.2940/60 resistance. It too, settled a little lower, around 1.2925.
GBP/USD and NZD/USD both had a very quiet session.
USD/JPY chopped around a little in the early part of the day in the 102.35/40 to 102.60/65 range, sitting around 102.55 in the early part of the afternoon awaiting the BOJ announcement. The announcement came out a little earlier than usual, which was a pleasant surprise … but that was the only surprise – it was a steady as she goes announcement (link to summary in bullets, above)
