Forex news for Asia trading Monday 26 October 2015

Monday

  • 5 things to watch from China's 5-year plan Plenum this week
  • Barclays, Blackfriars & BlackRock all say B careful of China equity rebound
  • PBOC research head says 6.9% growth reflects China's eco fundamentals
  • IEA's Birol says oil investment will decline further in 2016
  • People’s Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at 6.3549
  • More from the PBOC: Interest rate liberalization is a key reform policy
  • PBOC vice governor says there's still room to cut banks' RRR
  • 5000 UK Aldi workers to get a pay rise
  • ANZ on the Chinese yuan: near-term depreciation pressure remains
  • A quick look at what to expect in the China 5 year plan this week
  • China's PingAn Insurance to offer zero deposit home loans ... in Australia
  • Researcher says China has room to further loosen monetary policy
  • China edges closer to inclusion in the IMF's SDR in November, more
  • Preview - Goldman Sachs on the FOMC this week
  • Barclays 'trade of the week' is to buy USD/JPY leading into the BOJ meeting
  • Trade ideas thread to begin the new forex week - Monday 26 October 2015

Weekend:

  • All the weekend forex headlines - in one place!
  • Were there signs China was going to cut?
  • Bank of Italy's Panetta: Eurozone inflation will remain low
  • Lunch with Ben Bernanke
  • Slovenia PM: Failure on immigration plan could signal end of EU
  • Don't bet on rising Canadian productivity with Trudeau in office
  • UAE economic minister says $80 a barrel is an ideal price for oil
  • FOMC to leave markets guessing again next week says BofA Merrill
  • Trading the ECB's dovish shift - The plan according to UBS
  • Spain's De Guindos says the Eurozone continues to have defects
  • It's time to change time - Putting back the clocks
  • China's Premier Li says 7% growth goal not set in stone
  • SNB's Zurbruegg expects the Swiss Franc to weaken further
  • BoE's Carney: UK rate rises "a possibility not a certainty"
  • China edges closer to IMF's SDR inclusion, what does it mean for the yuan?
  • Stick this in the diary: December 3-Yellen fronts Congress pre-FOMC
  • Perfectionism has no place in trading
  • ESM says a Greek debt haircut is not politically feasible
  • PBOC says they aim to keep real interest rates at reasonable level to reduce corporate debt burden

A grinding move lower for the USD nearly across the board today to open the FX week here in Asia.

EUR, GBP, CHF, AUD, NZD ... all gained against the USD to a greater or lesser extent. The broad USD weakness seems to be playing out as a 'corrective' move to the late move last week, as there was little in the way of weekend or Monday news to trigger what we've seen. Sure, some jaw boning on the CHF and the GBP (see bullets, above) from the SNB and BoE, but not much we haven't heard before.

One thing ... Paul Krugman was reported to have said the US dollar is overvalued. If he did, I couldn't find the comment anywhere. Perhaps it will pop up somewhere in the hours to come. If thats why the USD had a weak day in Asia it'll be a surprise to me. Since when did the currency market hang on Mr. Krugman's comments? (No offence to Paul Krugman intended, nor the currency market).

Gold jumped the bandwagon, grinding out a very small gain. As did oil, up tiny as well.

Regional equities rallied on the back of the gains in Europe/US time on Friday from the late Chinese easing moves (the circle of life, right?):

  • Shanghai +0.72%
  • Nikkei the biggest winner ... +1.06%
  • HK +0.23%
  • ASX hardly broke a sweat ... +0.03%