Forex news for Asia trading for Wednesday 24 February 2021
- AUD/USD rise is likely to slow until Friday
- Bitcoin is back above US$50K, support from ARK cited
- Novavax may have a 'game changer' COVID-19 vaccine on its hands
- Five (!) Bank of England speakers on the docket for Wednesday 24 February 2021
- Cable surge attributed to stop loss trigger, EUR/GBP drop, option-related activity
- RBNZ Governor Orr's press conference - says wants to retain all options for stimulus
- The US House will vote on Biden's coronavirus economic stimulus bill on Friday
- RBNZ Governor Orr's press conference - live link
- RBNZ says the NZD would be considerably higher if not for RBNZ policy actions
- NZD gaining further - RBNZ response ongoing
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.4615 (vs. yesterday at 6.4516)
- FX option expiries for Wednesday February 24 at the 10am NY cut
- NZD marked lower on the RBNZ statement but recovered quickly to a fresh session high
- RBNZ keep monetary policy steady, as expected
- There is some chatter about that China will release the two imprisoned Canadians
- AstraZeneca tells EU it expects to deliver less than half the COVID-19 vaccines it was contracted to supply in Q2
- Australia Construction work done for Q4 -0.9% q/q (vs. expected +1.0%)
- Australia Wage Price Index for Q4 2020: 0.6% q/q (vs. expected +0.3%)
- Reports that Pfizer's vaccine is two thirds less effective against mutant virus variants is not fresh news
- US Senator Mitt Romney says Biden's $15 minimum wage proposal is a huge leap
- Japan finance minister Aso says not considering further fresh economic stimulus
- Biden says the US and Canada will work together to get Canadians released from China prison
- UK Chancellor is preparing to extend the stamp duty holiday to the end of June
- Fed head Powell spoke Tuesday - recap "Toss out the college textbooks, because the world has changed"
- Awaiting the PBOC yuan reference rate setting, offshore yuan rose with dovey Powell
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday 24 February 2021
- Private oil survey data shows a build in headline crude oil inventory
- Square has bought 3,000+ Bitcoins (outlays around US$170m)
It was an active day in some of the major forex pairs here during the session, cable the stand-out mover with a 100+ point jump (and a solid size retracement after GBP/USD spiked to highs (briefly) above 1.4230 on the back of a drop in EUR/GBP, cable stop loss buy orders being triggered and option hedge activity. Its since dropped back to be around 1.4155 as I post.
Also today we had the Reserve Bank of New Zealand policy statement which saw the kiwi $ initially marked down before it jumped to a fresh session high circa 0.7384. The RBNZ have given no guarantee but the indications are they see the next cash rate move as higher (see bullets above for more). Of course there was the usual couching of views around the risks ahead and what have you (again, see bullets above for the RBNZ today).
The Australian dollar rose with the NZD, to its highest since February of 2018.
USD/JPY and USD/CHF continued their gains, USD/JPY more so. While EUR/USD was realtively subdued for the day here.
The PBOC set the onshore yuan today ever so slightly weaker (for the CNY) than expected).
A couple of items not posted on but that are nevertheless of interest:
- JP Morgan says: "We remain optimistic that governments can continue to gradually remove restrictions as the vaccine rollout gains momentum, and that will allow for a powerful rebound in growth during the middle quarters of this year."
- China's Securities Times reported that China is likely to shift emphasis away from quantitative growth targets and instead focus on reforms and nurturing new growth drivers
