Forex news for Asia trading Friday 22 May 2015

  • More on the BOJ decision - "slightly revised up its assessment of the economy"
  • BOJ monetary policy meeting announcement: No change in policy
  • OPEC to stay with big volume pumping strategy as rival producers buckle
  • The only 3 people worth listening to on Greece (Me and that guy down the pub not 2 of 'em)
  • Former Fed governor says little real debate happens at FOMC meetings
  • Conference Board Leading Economic Index for China: +1.1% m/m
  • Soros on China, US: Not an exaggeration to say could be on the threshold of World War 3
  • Barclays: Oil fundamentals are weak; supply to far exceed demand
  • New Zealand - ANZ consumer confidence index for May: -3.8% m/m (prior was +3.4%)
  • Australian Treasurer Hockey: Real momentum building in Australian economy
  • China Securities Journal- Govt to increase infrastructure spending to help economic growth
  • The RBA is obsessed about "currency wars" ... latest data "is the stuff of nightmares"
  • Fed head Yellen speaking Friday afternoon US time ... labor market to be a key focus
  • BOJ's Maeda - "the economy has shifted from a recovery stage to an expansion phase"
  • Spokesman: Merkel-Hollande-Tsipras talks focused on successful completion of current bailout
  • German finance ministry sees economic upswing continuing in 2015
  • How to make 100 billion in profit in a year (61 companies did) ...
  • New Zealand finance minister English: NZ on track for sustainable growth
  • Goldman Sachs raises Spain GDP forecast to 2.8%

NZD was the biggest mover today, with NZD/USD up around 60 or so points from late US levels. The buying was driven by AUD/NZD sellers in addition to squaring of NZD/USD shorts going into a long US weekend. There was very little in the way of news or data today. (consumer confidence data did show a dip, but this came out long after the move higher had begun). AUD/USD managed to gain also. not to the same extent, up around 30+ points from late NY. Its around 0.7920 as I type, with market chatter of option strikes at this level likely to attract some sideways trade around here. Having said this, AUD/USD is pretty much on session highs here as is NZD/USD.

Elsewhere we had some small moves ... nothing to write home about ... but I guess that's sort of what I'm doing anyway.

  • EUR/USD gained 30+ points (and is near highs as I update). There was little in the way of fresh news, but reading between the lines of the news on the Merkel-Tsipras-Hollande showed a slightly better tone than we are accustomed to.
  • CHF, too, is stronger (slightly only) on the session after USD/CHF managed to gain a little in early Tokyo and then give it all back and more. The range was not large, though.
  • Cable has managed to edge a few tics up.
  • Oil trickled a few cents lower, gold is a few cents higher.

Which brings us to the yen to round out the day's wrap. We had the BOJ meeting announcement today, the result of which was, as expected, no change in policy, and an upgrade to the bank's economic assessment. It would be difficult to imagine a smaller upgrade to the outlook, with language in the statement going from last month when the statement read the economy continued to recover moderately as a trend, while this month it was tweaked ever so slightly to "Japan's economy continues to recover moderately". Still, with the Japanese economy one takes what one is offered, I suppose.

Have a great weekend all!

Still to come:

  • ECB central bank forum preview: It's a Draghi fuelled end to the week for the ECB, BOE, Fed and BOJ
  • Preview: Five questions ahead of Janet Yellen's speech