The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Monday August 12, 2013

Weekend:

Monday:

From Japan:

  • GDP (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary: 0.6% q/q (expected 0.9%,prior 0.9% (revised from 1.0%))
  • GDP Annualized (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary: 2.6 % y/y (expected 3.6%, prior 3.8% (revised from 4.1%))
  • GDP Nominal (seasonally adjusted) for Q2, preliminary: 0.7% q/q ( expected 1.0%, prior 0.6%)
  • GDP Deflator for Q2, preliminary: -0.3% y/y (expected -0.7%, prior -1.1%)
  • Domestic CGPI for July: 0.5% m/m ( expected 0.2%, prior 0.1%)
  • Domestic CGPI for July: 2.2% y/y (expected 1.9%, prior 1.2%)

EUR/USD and GBP/USD were movers early in New Zealand as sell stops were triggered in the thin market. EUR/USD down below 1.3315 before bouncing back 25 points and cable down below 1.5490 before it, too, bounced. An overall quiet session for both, though, drifting lower again as the session progressed.

USD/JPY had a quiet opening through until the GDP data release (and other data, though GDP was the focus – see bullets, above), which saw it drop to session lows below 95.95 before recovering, too. It settled in a band around 96.10 until ticking higher on news Japanese PM Abe was to address media late in the Tokyo morning, taking out some trading short stop losses above 96.25. It moved above 96.40 then to 96.60/65 as Abe spoke (he didn’t add anything to what we already know).

AUD/USD had a reasonably range-bound session, but was choppy within it, straddling 0.9190 for much of the Asian morning. Kiwi, too, choppy and range-bound.

Gold performed well on the opening, trading around $16 higher.