Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Thursday 6 December 2018
- Australian press - Car dealers on 8th consecutive month of falling sales
- AUD/USD back at its overnight high (in a small range)
- Goldman Sachs says China's economy is facing strong headwinds
- China's Min of Commerce says to appropriately deal with trade frictions
- FX forecasts from Barclays for year end majors, into Q1
- BOJ Gov Kuroda again - there is no need to ease policy further now
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.8664 (vs. yesterday at 6.8599)
- US President Trump tweets there will be US China deal in 90 days
- Brexit: UK Times - Ministers will order pharmacists to ration drugs if UK crashes out
- More from Fed's Williams, comments on trade war impact
- Japan wages data - Oct. Labor Cash earnings: +1.5% y/y (expected +1.0%, prior +0.8%)
- Bye-bye Bitcoin (again) … hits a 15 month low
- Now Huawei is copping it from Japan!
- Fed Chair Powell: US labor market is very strong by many measures
- Japan Overall Household Spending for October: -0.3% y/y (expected +1.0%)
- Trade ideas thread - Friday 7 December 2018
- Australian construction sector PMI (Nov): 44.5 (prior 46.4)
It is typical for pre-nonfarm payroll sessions in Asia to be a subdued affair and today was no different. If you've scanned through your charts you'll have noted the narrow ranges nearly across the board.
Unless you stumbled across Bitcoin, which fell hard again during the session. Its difficult to argue much of a reason to buy it, although the pushers and the faithful do dredge up old support lines. They have been consistently disappointed from 20K so far.
News and data flow was non-impactful. We had comments from central bankers (from the Fed's Powell and Williams, and the BOJ's Kuroda) to little effect. We had Japanese data, ditto.
For currencies, it was small ranges and minor wiggles only. USD/JPY has edged a little to the better, as has USD/CAD, AUD/USD and NZD/USD. Cable down a a dribble, EUR/USD is pretty much unchanged.
But, as I said, there has been little to drive moves and we await the economic data from the US on Friday morning (previews are below linked)
Still to come: