The forex trading headlines for Asia trading today
It was a very light data day in Asia, with only Japanese Ministry of Finance data:
- Japan Buying Foreign Bonds -Y862.2B (prior week was -Y331.9B). This is the data the market was focused on, wanting to see net Japanese buying. They were disappointed again. This is the 6th consecutive week of net selling
- Japan Buying Foreign Stocks -Y27.8B (prior week was -Y157.7B)
- Foreign Buying Japan Bonds -Y199.3 B (prior week was -Y175.8B)
- Foreign Buying Japan Stocks -Y27.9 B (prior week was Y1569.0B)
Verizon Communications Inc is said to be preparing a possible bid to take full control of Verizon Wireless from joint venture partner Vodafone Group Plc, the bid could be worth up to $100 billion in cash and stock
Japanese PM Abe said it is not necessary to stick to 44Tln yen bond issuance cap
PBOC set the yuan reference rate at 6.2300, a record high for CNY against USD
South Korean Q1 GDP beat expectations, coming in at +0.9% q/q (vs. +0.6% expected)
A bout of USD weakness in the Tokyo morning saw EUR, GBP, AUD, NZD all trade higher. Even the weak CHF joined in, albeit to only a small extent, USD/CHF falling from around 0.9470 to 0.9450.
EUR/USD and GBP/USD performed much better, though. GBP/USD triggered stop-loss buying ahead of 1.5300; later news surfaced of the Verizon/Vodafone bid, with much market chatter about the support this would provide for GBP, despite the actual M&A flows (if they eventuate) maybe being months away.
AUD/USD popped above 1.0300 resistance on the back of AUD/JPY buying, but ran into US-based sellers from 1.3010. NZD/USD performed very solidly, gaining to above 0.8530.
USD/JPY had a range-bound session. For the much of the morning it was in a 10 point range around 99.50, drifting a little lower into Tokyo lunch time toward 99.35.