Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 2 March 2017

  • More politics: U.S. attorney general Sessions failed to disclose Russia contacts
  • More on Jen's Weidmann (BUBA big gun) speech overnight
  • China's new bank regulator - Risk prevention in a policy focus in 2017
  • USD/JPY & EUR/JPY orderboards
  • EUR/USD orderboard
  • RBA monetary policy meeting next week (March 7). Let the previews begin!
  • Japan finance minister Aso: A US rate hike would have a big impact on Asia
  • People’s Bank of China sets yuan reference rate at 6.8809 (vs. yesterday at 6.8798)
  • Political ally of French conservative candidate Fillon suspends its support (more)
  • Australia Trade balance (January) : A$ 1.302bn surplus (expected AUD3.8bn surplus)
  • Australia Building Approvals data (January): +1.8% m/m (expected -0.5%)
  • White House withdraws 2 Obama nominees for CFTC
  • UK has approved Charlotte Hogg for role as Bank of England deputy governor
  • More from Fed's Brainard: Don't know how much fiscal policy is coming
  • WSJ - US review of Nth Korea strategy, possibility of military force or regime change
  • Fed's Brainard: Rate hike will likely be appropriate soon
  • Heads up for Fed's Brainard at the top of the hour
  • Japan's GPIF is struggling to beat the stock market
  • Japan press not impressed: "Coming not so soon: Trump's 'historic' tax plan"
  • AUD and NZD orderboards
  • Trade ideas thread - Thursday 2 March 2017
  • Economic data due from Asia today (and another Fed speaker!)
  • ICYMI: Forexlive Americas forex news wrap: Stocks surge on increased economic optimism

A quieter session than the previous here in Asia today. News, data and market movement were all more subdued.

The news flow pretty much kicked off with a speech and following Q&A from Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Lael Brainard. Brainard tends to be toward the more dovish end of the spectrum, her remarks today were awaited to see if whe would be more hawkish in keeping with comments from other Fed officials late Tuesday and into the Asian day on Wednesday. Brainard was perhaps not quite so gung-ho, but did say she thought the US was ready for rate rise "soon" given improved global conditions and continued growth.

Markets responded to her speech by marking the USD higher; USD/JPY (for example) jumped from around 113.75 to above 114 and its consolidated around 114 for the balance of the session. EUR & CHF have also gained against the USD, but the extent of the moves have been small only.

Cable is net little changed on the day but again the range has been small.

Australian data was next, building approvals (a m/m bounce) and trade balance (a smaller than expected surplus - imports up and exports down to a surprising extent; volumes for iron ore & coal dropped significantly.)

The Australian dollar dropped 15 or so points on the data, recovered all its lost ground in the following 90-odd minutes and is dripping back toward lows as I update. NZD/USD, too, is a little lower on the session (RBNZ Governor Wheeler spoke earlier, convered by Greg in the US session).

Gold is little changed, down a few dollars and oil is little changed also.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei +0.95% (to its highest level since December 2015)
  • Shanghai +0.03%
  • HK +0.36%
  • ASX +1.22%

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