Forex news for Asia trading for Friday 12 March 2021
- China's Ant Group says it will prevent small business loans from flowing into stock and property markets
- Head of Renesas says the chip shortage may extend into the back half of 2021
- Deutsche Bank's end of 2021 US 10-Year yield forecast is 2.25%
- US Treas Sec Yellen says some Americans will receive $1400 payments this weekend
- Singapore's Prime Minister says there is a heightened risk of even worse US-China strains
- Thailand has stopped AstraZeneca vaccination shots
- End of 2021 GBP/USD forecast 1.48
- Tesla's Fremont factory has a fire
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4845 (vs. yesterday at 6.4970)
- US President Biden, PM Suga to Meet in April
- UBS says the USD may gain further upside momentum
- Goldman Sachs 2021 US GDP forecasts are huge (Q2 is 11%!)
- More on the rumour the BOJ will drop its 6tln yen ETF buy target
- AstraZeneca further slashes its target for supply to EU in Q1 to 30 mln vaccines
- IMF gives the New Zealand economy a tick of approval ... but concerned on the house price bubble
- Let me get this straight, Denmark has sent AstraZeneca into 14-day isolation, right?
- US President Biden to make all adults eligible for vaccines no later than May 1
- Australian Foreign Minister says Australia is very concerned about China moves on Hong Kong
- European Union aims to produce battery cells for at least 7m electric cars a year by 2025
- New Zealand relaxes COVID-19 restrictions further
- More rumours on the BOJ policy review - Bank may abandon its ETF target
- NZD/USD forecast to 0.7500
- Biden administration further restricting supplies to Chinese company Huawei
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 12 March 2021
- New Zealand February manufacturing PMI 53.4 (prior 57.5)
- Novavax coronavirus vaccine showed a 96.4% efficacy in UK phase 3 trial
It was a fairly uneventful session and the small ranges for major FX reflect this. We had rumours of the BOJ dropping its ETF buy target (only a rumour - and Japanese stocks went up today so it seems to have been shrugged off there), US President Biden's first address to the nation (with commitments on vaccinations and loosening distancing restrictions), an Asian country (Thailand) halted AstraZeneca vaccination shots on clot concerns (Denmark news Thursday Europe time) and US Treasury Secretary Yellen saying some Americans would recive $1400 checks as soon as this weekend.
As the headline to the wrap says the moves were, in summary, higher US yields and a higher US dollar. Major FX declined against the USD across the board, as did gold.
The People's Bank of China set the onshore yuan more strongly than expected in the reference rate.
Regional stocks were mixed:
- Japan's Nikkei 225 +1.25%
- Shanghai Composite +0.3%
- HK's Hang Seng -0.22%
USD/JPY found some strength:
