Forex news for Asia trading Friday 17 November 2017
- German coalition talks to continue Friday midday - could stretch into Saturday
- US senate panel votes to advance republican tax legislation
- Barclays EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD forecasts ... USD lower over the medium-term
- The early Asia news wrap - USD slides
- More USD slide
- Reuters: Images suggest North Korea 'aggressive' work on ballistic missile submarine
- USD still slipping, GBP/USD popping above 1.3210
- PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.6277 (vs. yesterday at 6.6286)
- BOJ JGB buying operation - cuts buys in the 1-3 year timeframe
- Friday FX option expiries
- Australia new vehicle sales for October flat m/m
- More from Fed's Williams - reasonable to hike in Dec then 3 more in 2018
- And ... don't forget ECB President Draghi is speaking in the European morning
- Mueller Issued Subpoena for Russia-Related Docs From Trump Campaign Officials
- WSJ on Fed's Williams: Fed may need to look at price level targeting
- Germany - Merkel Leads Marathon Coalition Talks as Obstacles Abound
- Goldman Sachs on the Australian dollar and RBA (pushed back rate hike call)
- Goldman Sachs 2018 outlook - soggy dollar, better euro
- Brexit - Goldman Sachs head Blankfein suggests second referndum
- Fed's Williams says negative rates need to be on the list of possible tools in future
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 17 November 2017
- Forexlive America's FX news wrap: US House passes tax reform bill
- New Zealand Q3 PPI: Output +1.0% q/q (prior +1.3%) Input +1.0% q/q (prior +1.4%)
- Fed's Williams - low rates globally means dealing with future recession harder
- NZ manufacturing PMI for October 57.2 (previous was 57.5)
- US stocks surge with the Nasdaq closing at record levels
- Economic data due from Asia today - Federal Reserve speaker
The USD weakness was pretty much kicked off by the story in the Wall Street Journal on the US Russia probe:
In that post I linked to a WSJ story, if you cannot access the Journal, here is an ungated sources that has popped up since:
After this there was a slow-moving USD slide, very slow, but persistent. It accelerated firstly against the GBP, Cable popped above 1.3210 (check out a chart ... there was covering to do above there).
EUR gained more quickly after this.
For the yen, the story is further mixed with the North Korea news:
The news Reuters reported on had been broken a few hours before by more specialist sites, but Reuters was the first major wire to break it. The yen strengthened. The Nikkei gave back some its morning pop. Further mixed into the murk was the BOJ buying less JGBs than in a previous operation. The Nikkei dropped from its opening gains as the yen climbed.
While the USD/CNY central rate was set little changed on the day, PBOC injections into money markets totalled 810bn yuan for this week, the biggest injection since January of this year.
As the session progressed the USD gained back just a small amount, mainly influenced by US tax news again:
For the session as a whole, though, the USD is generally weaker. USD/JPY hit lows circa 112.40 (currently around 112.52). EUR/USD gained to around 1.182 and is just under 1.1810 as I post. USD/CHF lower, and Cable higher.
Notable laggards were the AUD/USD and NZD/USD. Really notable!
AUD/USD gained to just shy of 0.7610 but has given back pretty much all of it to be barely changed on the day now. A similar story for the kiwi, higher but now basically flat on the session. Contrast these with USD/CAD, the CAD strengthening against the USD (USD/CAD to under 1.2720 and only a 10 or so point bounce since then). A terrible antipodean performance today, which is ominous as we go into Friday in Europe and the US.
The Korean won continued its happy march higher today. BOk is not impressed and tried to talk it down a bit .... not much luck though.