The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today: Monday September 30, 2013
Weekend:
- Italian government on the brink of collapse
- Italian PM Letta to appear before parliament and outline a plan to move forward
- Italian PM Letta may seek confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday
- US headed for a government shutdown
- UK “Help to Buy” plan to start next week, 3 months earlier than scheduled
- SPD agree to talk with Merkel as Steinbruck steps down
Monday:
- New Zealand Building Permits for August +1.4% m/m (vs. expected +2.5%) and more detail
- New Zealand ANZ September 2013 Business Confidence at 54.1 (vs. 48.1 prior)
- New Zealand September ANZ Activity Outlook 45.3 (vs. prior was 43.3)
- NZ Treasury has published their Monthly Economic Indicators
- Australia – TD/Melbourne Institute inflation gauge September: +0.2% (vs. +0.1% prior)
- Australia – Private Sector Credit growth for August: +0.3% m/m (vs. expected at +0.4% and prior also at +0.4%)
- China HSBC/Markit Manufacturing PMI for September: 50.2 (vs. 51.2 flash reading and expected) and more details
- Japan Industrial production for August (preliminary): -0.7% m/m (vs. expected -0.3%)
- Japan Industrial production for August (preliminary): -0.2% y/y (vs. expected +0.5%)
- Japan – Retail sales for August: +1.1% m/m (vs. expected +1.0%)
- Japan – Retail sales August: 0.9% y/y (vs. expected +1.0%)
- Japan – Markit/JMMA Manufacturing PMI for September: 52.5 (prior was 52.2)
- UK data – Hometrack housing survey for September: +0.5% m/m (prior was +0.4%)
- Austria appears to have returned the governing coalition with a reduced majority
- New Zealand PM John Key said the RBNZ is likely to raise rates more slowly due to loan limits
Weekend news of Berlusconi’s party withdrawing support from the Italian government and the US government shutdown looming ever closer was a risk off/flight to safety message to the markets, resulting in a gap lower opening in New Zealand for the USD/JPY, EUR/USD. GBP/USD, NZD/USD and AUD/USD, and a gap higher for USD/CHF.
GBP/USD tore up the memo as it dipped as low as 1.6102 before rallying strongly to a high above 1.6180.
USD/CHF retraced its gap higher quickly, settling below 0.9050.
AUD/USD jumped back above 0.9330 after its lower opening, but was met with sellers weighing on it. It fell below 0.9290 before a bounce to 0.9310 in the minutes preceding the HSBC China PMI, but the data saw it marked to new lows on the session before once again it recovered somewhat to around 0.9300.
NZD had a choppy session, 0.8250/80.
USD/JPY got as low as 97.53 before bouncing to 98 and then settled sideways in a range around 97.80.
EUR/USD gapped to 1.3475 on the New Zealand opening but found support around 1.3470. It bounced to 1.3500, then back toward 1.3475 before settling above 1.3490 for the session as of writing. The effect of the weekend’s Italy and US news gradually faded through the session in the absence of fresh bad news.