The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Friday August 16, 2013
A magnitude 6.8 earthquake hitt near Wellington – let’s hope everyone there is well, there have been no reports of injury. Reports, more, picture of Ash’s desk! No tsunami warning issued.
- There was no economic data out of New Zealand, Australia, Japan or China today
- The Bank of Japan bought JGBs today:
- 200bn yen in 1-3 yr debt
300bn yen 3 – 5 year
450bn yen in 5-10 yr
EUR and GBP barely budged.
Yen trickled lower as we approached the opening of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (and we waited to see what the Nikkei would do once the cash market opened), and then bounced from 97.00/05 to above 97.40 as the Nikkei failed to extend losses. Into the Tokyo afternoon USD/JPY continued to grind higher, above 97.60.
Gold found more buyers in the early going this morning, though the range was not large.
AUD and NZD tracked sideways before eventually pushing a little higher, the Kiwi nearing its overnight highs and its lagging cross-Tasman cousin not even close. Buying against the yen and short-covering stops said to be the driver of the move.
As per the headline to the post, and links earlier up this post, Wellington, New Zealand was hit by an earthquake nearby in the afternoon. The New Zealand Stock Exchange suspended trading, the airport closed as a precaution. NZD/USD was sold down briefly below 0.8060.
The Shanghai Composite surged later in the China morning, dragging the AUD/USD to new highs on the session around 0.9170.
Chart of the Shanghai Composite as of writing this post:
