Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Monday 12 March 2018

Weekend:

Politics to centre stage yet again, this time in Japan. Weekend news that the finance ministry forged documents relating to a 2016 school land sale was confirmed in the Diet Monday,. The yen strengthened in the very, very early trade (NZ time), only to lose the gains into early Tokyo (USD/JPY 'gapped' lower then retraced + some) before gaining again during mid-morning Japan. USD/JPY has been as low as about 106.50 (just above there actually), dragging yen crosses heavier with it. More details on the news in the bullets above.

Elsewhere AUD and NZD are both a little higher against the USD for the session, as I update China commodity exchanges are seeing some opening losses, seemingly capping these currency rises for now.

USD/CHF had opened lower (NZ time), retraced and is now down just a few points on the session. EUR/USD has eked out a 10 or net point gain, as has cable - but these were not where the interest was during the timezone.

Gold and oil, both small ranges also. Bitcoin is up a little.

From the People's Bank of China today - the biggest jump for the CNY (against the USD at the reference rate fixing from the Bank) in a couple of weeks.

Still to come: