- China’s exports crumble in February
- AUD/USD dips and risk-aversion plays emerge after data
- Australian umenployment rate unchanged at 5%
- Headline jobs number shows -10k against the expected +20k. This data hides a big rise in full-time jobs and a sharp drop in part-time work
- Japan’s February CGPI +1.7% YoY
- Japan’s Q4 GDP revised down
- Bank of Korea raises rates by 25bps to 3%
- RBNZ lowers rates by 50bps to 2.5%
- Oil prices rose by 0.4% ahead of tomorrow’s day of rage in Saudi Arabia
- Nikkei -1.4%, Sydney -1.3%, Seoul and Shanghai -1%. Gold $1429/oz.
It has been a reasonably active session in Asia with first the New Zealand rate cut, then Australian job numbers abd finally the Chinese trade data to guarantee some volatility.
The AUD/USD was trading at 1.0105 before the jobs data but fell sharply to 1.0066 on the headline number. Once traders dug a little deeper into the data, the AUD/USD jumped straight back up to 1.0115. The Chinese data, whilst worse than expected, did not come as a total surprise as there had been rumours that the Chinese would engineer a poor number in order to help their negotiating position in upcoming US trade talks. The AUD/USD fell heavily nonetheless, from 1.0090 to a low of 1.0032. Ranges: 1.0032/1.0117
Most of the other pairs have followed the AUD/USD lead. EUR/USD opened at 1.3900 and tried to push higher first up but encountered some decent selling at the session high of 1.3925. The Chinese data and the falling AUD/USD encouraged these early session longs to bail. Ranges: EUR/USD 1.3865/1.3925, EUR/CHF 1.2898/1.2940
Cable has followed the lead of the other pairs, lagging in both directions. Traders have been unwilling to put on much risk ahead of tonights MPC. Ranges: 1.6172/1.6216, EUR/GBP .8566/90
USD/CHF .9277/.9319, USD/JPY 82.67/89