The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today, Monday May 13
- G7: Japan escapes censure (includes link to Mike’s coverage of G7 outcomes)
- If you’ve missed this over the weekend, Hilsenrath’s much talked-about ‘Fed tapering’ article was published Friday night in the US: Fed Maps Exit From Stimulus
- More must-read articles (he has 3 over the weekend) from Hilsenrath here too
- Japanese Money Stock M2 +3.3% m/m (vs. 3.1% expected)
- Japanese Money Stock M3 +2.6% m/m (vs. 2.5% expected)
- Australian Housing Finance data for March +5.2% m/m (vs. +4.0% expected). More here.
- Australian April NAB Business Confidence in at -2 (vs. prior of 2)
- Australian April NAB Business Conditions -6 (vs. -7 prior)
- New Zealand April Food Price Index +0.2% m/m (vs. -1.3% prior)
- New Zealand April House Price Index +0.8% m/m
With the Hilsenrath article, and the green light for further yen weakness from the G7, the USD strength we saw late last week continued on the New Zealand open, with small gaps lower for EUR/USD, GBP/USD, AUD/USD and NZD/USD. USD/JPY, conversely & obviously, gapped a little higher. After the opening gaps and retracements most currencies settled into quiet ranges, with AUD/USD pretty much the only one following on and being the weakest as it traded back down towards its lows on Friday in the New York timezone.
USD/JPY, though, made new highs, spiking through 102 to 102.15/20 in early Tokyo before running into profit-take selling. It came back below the figure but found buyers under 101.80/85 and settled for the session 80/95. Option-related selling is again on the agenda at 102.50 and 103.00. Note 10-year JGBs fell in price today to their lowest since early February.
