- ICYMI - US senators scale back curbs on the use of Chinese-made chips by the US government
- China's President Xi is visiting Saudi Arabia this week
- China YTD (Jan - Nov) trade data show both exports and imports rising (yuan terms)
- China's leaders say plan to allow home quarantine, to ease COVID testing
- European Central Bank speakers on 07 December 2022 - Lane, Panetta
- BoJ’s Nakamura says the Bank must continue to maintain monetary easing
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.9975 (vs. estimate at 6.9941)
- TD on RBA rate hike statement: "no suggestion the Bank was considering a pause just yet"
- Australian economic growth data: Q3 GDP +0.6% q/q (expected +0.7%, prior +0.9%)
- PBOC is expected to set the USD/CNY reference rate at 6.9941 – Reuters estimate
- HK media say that China considers downgrading Covid’s status - could be as soon as today
- Preview of the Bank of Canada monetary policy meeting Wednesday 7 December, +25bp expected
- Japan data - Reuters Tankan shows improved sentiment for manufacturers and services
- Goldman Sachs plans spend of "tens of millions" of $ to buy or invest in crypto
- ICYMI: JPMorgan CEO Dimon warns that high inflation could trigger "severe" US recession
- Australia November Serices PMI drops further into contraction at 45.6 (vs. October 47.7)
- SocGen is out with a bold call on where USD/JPY is headed next
- ICYMI - Goldman Sachs CEO Solomon sees a 2/3 chance of a US recession in 2023
- Oil - private survey of inventory shows headline draw much higher than expected
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday, 7 December 2022
- S&P/Nasdaq indices can't keep momentum going below 200 hour MA today
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US dollar stays strong as stocks and oil sink
The USD swung in small ranges against major forex rates today. USD/JPY kicked off with a pop towards 137.35 before subsiding back to unchanged. Its in the middle of its day's range as I update. We had a Bank of Japan speaker today who basically repeated Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda’s talking points. Key to these is the BOJ expects inflation to fall in the middle of the next fiscal year (which begins April 1 2023) without wage-price inflation kicking in. The BOJ is not expecting wages to drive inflation.
After USD/JPY hit its session high and began to drop back the USD lost ground against other majors. Ranges were lacklustre and the move has mainly retraced to leave little change pretty much across the board.
On the data front, we had Chinese trade data for November, disappointing. As I pointed out numerous times, though, with moves afoot in China to dial back restrictions economic data coming out now is more stale than usual. Economic activity should pick up in China in the months ahead. It may be a bumpy road, but trend improvement should be seen.
From Australia we had economic growth data for Q3, GDP missed a touch. There is more in the bullets above.
Earlier this week I posted to the effect that some key announcements were expected from China today on easing COVID restrictions. So far we have had reports out of a Chinese Communist Party Politburo meeting held on December 6. But the reports were all generic sort of stuff that did not provide much detail. As I post its still only midday or so in China (as an aside China only has only one official time zone, right across the breadth of the county, unofficially the far west uses China Standard Time minus 2 hours though) so there well be more to come.
Equities in the Asia-Pacific region traded mixed today so far. Japan’s Nikkei is down, HK is up (barely), Shanghai is down.
Pic via timeanddate.com