Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Wednesday 7 March 2018

US President Trump's top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, resigned. The news sent a wave of buying through the yen. This is Asia, so the move was not huge, a quick 60-odd points lower for USD/JPY. There were responses elsewhere, a few minutes later with gold higher, equities lower, AUD and NZD lower (AUD lost more than NZD did .... against USD) and CAD also. CHF higher.

EUR/USD and Cable gained a few tics but were not where the moves were.

Cohn's departure would seem to heighten risks for further trade tensions, it looks like Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs are well and truly on the table to start with.

We've since had a retrace for USD/JPY after it stalled for an hour around 105.50 (ForexLive telegram group got the heads up), but the extent has been to around 105.85 and is now back under 105.70.

Cohn was the dominant news during the session, by far.

We got Q4 Australian GDP data, which came in a touch under the 'expected' (I had a problem with the expected ... if I was correct then the GDP came in pretty much as expected:

The Australian dollar had dribbled lower ahead of the release but did not extend on the 'miss' (that wasn't really a miss at all, see that link). There were swings and roundabouts in the data, one positive noted was consumer spending, stronger than had been indicated by various indicators during the quarter (October to December 2017).

Still to come:

Bank of Canada monetary policy decision in focus Wednesday Nth America time: