Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Wednesday 19 September 2018

I'll get to the yuan and AUD pretty much right down the bottom of the wrap. I stuck it n the headline as a show of recency bias, K?

The session got an initial move on with reports on a very optimistic UK Prime Minister, with multiple reports she was looking for a good result (soft Brexit deal) with the help of the EU. European Union head Brexit negotiator Barnier (not Narnia) was reported as indicating more accommodation on Northern Ireland. There is more on both in the bullets above.

These stories came together and saw GBP/USD make gains, but a bit of warning on their sustainability came on the limited extent of the move despite it being the thinnest liquidity time of the 24 hour cycle (US gone for the day, Tokyo well short of beginning). Cable struggled above 1.3170 and sure enough has spent the balance of the session here (as I update) spitting back its gains, fully retracing to under 1.3150 (hey, I never said they were big moves, K?).

We had various bits and pieces of news and data crossing. NZ Q2 BOP CA (see bullets above) was a miss, while Japanese export data for August was a beat (ditto), impressive under the developing trade war clouds.

The Bank of Japan policy announcement came early in the expected window, and with an as expected unchanged decision this was par for the course. Yen did basically zero on the announcement.

And so to China. China's Premier Li Keqiang spoke at a World Economic Forum event in Tianjin and rambled on with the usual comforting murmurs on the Chinese economy; steady growth, healthy fundamentals, ample policy options and what have you. But then dropped something more interesting: China will not be devaluing the yuan to stimulate exports. The Australian dollar, in particular, liked it, adding on a quick 25-odd points to pop (but not sustain, as I post) 0.7250. Other currencies ticked a few points up also, EUR/USD, GBP/USD, kiwi, all a few ticks to the better.

In geopol we got some encouraging news from the North/South Korea summit - seemingly an agreement to allow nuclear inspectors into North Korea. There seemed to be little yen impact, USD/JPY has not done a lot all session (it edged a few tics to the better but only had a 15 or so point range on the session).

Still to come:

  • Brexit meeting in Salzburg, Austria (no, not Australia)