Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 17 September 2019
- More on Japan's oil reserves - "to be released if needed"
- 106 to 109 range ahead for USD/JPY due to improved outlook for US-China talks
- US-Japan trade deal is still not agreed on autos
- Japan finance minister Aso: No currency provision included in US-Japan trade deal
- Japan will consider a release of oil reserves if necessary
- PBOC lends 200bn yuan in one year MLF, rate unchanged
- China new home prices for August, up but at a slightly slower pace than in July
- Reserve Bank of Australia September meeting minutes - would consider further easing
- Australia Q2 house price index: -0.7 % q/q (expected -1%)
- M 5.1 earthquake southern Alaska
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0730 (vs. yesterday at 7.0657)
- If you are Japan's top dog currency intervention guy, this is your next job
- More on China MLFs
- Australia - ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence: 109.3 (prior 113.3)
- China analyst argues PBoC should lower rates - for the sake of the real economy
- Brexit - Decision on legality of UK PM Johnson's shutting down parliament as early as Friday
- "In a nutshell' view from MS - room for AUD, EUR to rally
- Trump says has reached initial trade agreement with Japan
- ICYMI: US Trade Rep Lighthizer determined to land 'real agreement' with China
- Update on the Saudi attacks whodunnit - more from 3 unnamed sources
- US DOJ has announced the arrest of a Chinese government employee - says related to visa fraud
- New Zealand - Westpac Q3 Consumer Confidence Index: 103.1 (prior 103.5)
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 17 September 2019
- Trump says he agrees with Pompeo on Iran being responsible for attack on Saudi
- US President Trump says again US could release oil from its reserves
It was a session of fairly light news and data flow but what little there was sent the AUD reeling. AUD/USD dropped from 0.6865 late North American trade time to under 0.6845 and has dropped further as I update to under 0.6840. I noted earlier a confluence of factors that combined to catalyse the fall:
- The usually ignored weekly consumer sentiment data point hit a two year low, which got some attention, not in a good way
- RBA September meeting minutes were released with the RBA yet again enunciating risks and adding fuel to the more rate cuts coming argument
- China's PBOC backed off a little on monetary stimulus, allowing nearly 300bn yuan in money market instruments to mature today while only rolling a little over two-thirds of the amount
- In addition, the PBOC weakened the onshore yuan today while China stock markets dropped also.
More details on these in the bullets above, bolded for easy spotting.
NZD/USD fell with the AUD, although not to the same extent.
USD/JPY was also a mover (as were yen crosses), higher to above 108.30 before peeling back a few points. The news that the US-Japan trade deal is done seemed to cap it (although further detail indicated the deal is not fully agreed to yet). A notable point was made by Japanese Finance Minister Aso, that there was no 'currency provision' in the deal. Japan has been pressured on yen weakness (at least by one big-time tweeter if you know what I mean!) but Aso today suggesting this pressure is off.
Cable is a few points down for the session, as is USD/CHF while EUR/USD is just a few points up. Also up is USD/CAD.
Still to come: