- Nikkei falls by over 2%
- Japan July core machinery orders +8.8%
- Japan current account surplus +26.1% YoY
- UK economy: Jobs growth slowing, food prices rising
- Australian July owner-occupied housing finance +1.7%
- Australian government set to push ahead with mining tax
- BoJ Governor: Past QE had little impact on deflation
It has been a surprisingly quiet session up until the last 15 minutes or so when option protection at 83.50 in USD/JPY was breached and stops below 83.50 were triggered. We’ve had the usual jawboning regarding over-excessive JPY strength but the market is now completely ignoring these. The JPY crosses rallied moderately early in the session on profit-taking after big overnight falls in EUR/JPY, but that has also been undone with the USD/JPY stops. Ranges: USD/JPY 83.35/87, 105.79/106.50
EUR/USD has been underpinned throughout the session by talk of good-sized bids at 1.2670/75, although traders have been unwilling to get themselves overly-long in what is worsening EUR sentiment. Ranges: EUR/USD 1.2677/00, EUR/CHF 1.2815/51.
The AUD has had a breather after the big news day that we had yesterday. Ranges: AUD/USD .9099/.9132
Sterling was unmoved by the relatively poor economic data although that might change once London opens. Ranges: Cable 1.5346/79, EUR/GBP .8253/68.
Markets: Nikkei -2.3%, HK -1.3%, Shanghai -0.5%, Seoul -0.9%. Gold $1260/oz, Oil $73.50/bbl.
