Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Monday 3 December 2018

We had pops higher nearly across the board for currencies in very early Asia trade following news of a China - US trade war hiatus, a 'cease fire'. Trump and Xi announced a 90 day period where there would be no escalation in tariffs while the thorny issues such as:

  • forced technology transfer
  • intellectual property protection
  • non-tariff barriers
  • cyber intrusions and cyber theft
  • Services
  • agriculture

are resolved. Sounds like a mammoth task for just 90 days. Sceptics might be proved correct.

But, hey, for the opening in Asia it was 'risk on' with yen lower while AUD, NZD, EUR, CAD and GBP gained. It was a higher yen cross extravaganza..

GBP soon lost it lustre, though, on the usual weekend array of sad Brexit headlines, filling its gap. After this it managed to trade steadily back up toward its earlier high, a good performance from cable after the opening volatility.

Meanwhile, USD/JPY slipped; it took a good few hours but by midday Tokyo it had more or less filled in its gap. As I update its down a little more.

CAD had a great session, helped along not only by the trade news but also oil prices getting a strong tailwind here in Asia. Over the weekend Russia and Saudi announced they'd cooperate further on oil production into next year. This set the stage for potential production cuts at the upcoming OPEC meeting (December 6). The Canadian province of Alberta announced it was cutting oil production.

EUR, AUD, NZD all traded better against the USD today. All had opeing higher gaps and some sort of retracement but as I post all are grinding it higher again, approaching the earlier morning high. Gold is getting a decent bid today, up a few dollars for the session. Oil has surged.

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Its worth checking through the China - US posts. The description of the deal differs depending on if you read the US or the China statement.

Still to come: