The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Monday September 09, 2013
- Japan final Q2 GDP (seasonally adjusted) +0.9% q/q (vs.expected +1.0%, prior +0.6%) a strong result, giving +3.8% annualized – more data here and what it means for the proposal to raise the sales tax
- Japan BOP current account data for July
- Japan Bank Lending excluding trusts for August 2.3% (vs. prior was +2.3% ) and more here
- China August trade balance: +28.61bn (vs. expected +$20bn)
- China CPI for August 2.6% y/y (vs. expected +2.6%), and PPI for August -1.6% y/y (expected -1.7%)
- Australia Home loans for July +2.4% m/m (vs.expected +2.0%)
- Australia ANZ Job Advertisements for August -2.0% m/m (vs. prior -1.1%)
- New Zealand: Manufacturing activity (seasonally adjusted) for Q2: -2.0% q/q (prior was +0.2%)
- New Zealand Quotable Value house prices +8.5% y/y in August (prior was +8.1%)
- Tokyo wins 2020 Olympics bid
- Comments from Amari on the sales tax hike debate, and earlier comment
- Syria: Kerry says Assad has crossed a ” global red line”
- Tony Abbott wins Australian election but failure to win in the upper house could make life a misery for him
- Bank of England’s Fisher in the UK’s Sunday Times – may hold off on more QE
- Will Berlusconi pull the plug on the Italian government?
The big mover in the morning was yen, with USD/JPY marked up immediately on the New Zealand opening to a big gap on the Friday close. USD/JPY got as high as 99.90 before settling around 99.60/70. As Tokyo liquidity entered and Nikkei futures showed a much higher opening, USD/JPY ticked to new highs, getting above 100 before finally running out of buyers. USD/JPY traded down to 99.50 and settled 50/60 into the Tokyo afternoon before ticking toward 99.70 as of writing.
Not much to report on GBP, EUR and CHF – these were not where the activity was in Asia today.
AUD had a small gap higher in New Zealand, up to above 0.9210 before drifitng quielty back down. It covered its gap, and then some, getting down to 0.9170. Reasonable home loan data and China CPI/PPI helped AUD to recover, it traded higher with the surging Shanghai Composite.
