- China COVID update - City of Yiwu has locked down some areas
- Bank of England meet Thursday, 4 August 2022 - Goldman Sachs expect a 50bp rate hike
- Another crypto hack - at least $5mn stolen from Solana wallets
- China July services PMI: 55.5 (prior 54.5)
- Japan has delayed the restart of a nuclear reactor
- Australian data - Q2 retail sales rise 1.4% q/q (vs.expected 1.2%)
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.7813 (vs. estimate at 6.7838)
- New Zealand data - ANZ's commodity price index -2.2% m/m (prior -0.4%)
- China halts even more imports from Taiwan
- Russian naval ships have joined with Chinese ships sailing near disputed Taiwan islands
- Japan Jibun July (final) Services PMI 50.3 (vs. prior 54.0)
- China halts Taiwan's exports of natural sands
- More from Bullard - says there is not going to be a recession in the US
- Australian service PMI for July (final from Markit/S&P Global) is 50.9 (prior 52.6)
- NZD/USD lost ground on disappointing jobs report
- Fed's Bullard says he thinks both the Fed & ECB will achieve a 'relatively soft landing'
- China is now seeking to stop UK visitors to Taiwan - warns MPs
- New Zealand Q2 unemployment rate 3.3% (vs. expected 3.1%)
- Australian Industry Group Performance of Construction Index in July drops further, to 45.3
- Morgan Stanley maintain a bearish skew on NZD
- US House Speaker Pelosi will meet with Taiwan’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, TMSC
- Voting by the UK Conservative Party for next PM has been delayed after a hacker alert
- HK central bank buys the (other) HKD
- UK politics update (that could impact GBP) - Truss surges ahead of Sunak
- China's naval exercises are a risk to shipping lanes around Taiwan - a supply chain issue
- Trade ideas thread - Wednesday, 3 August 2022
- Oil - private survey of inventory shows headline build vs. draw expected
- Two day losing streak for the major US indices
- Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: A short flight, then dollar delight
USD/JPY followed through with further gains during the session here today, rising to near 133.90. As I post its come back from that area but is still higher on the session circa 133.30.
There were mixed results elsewhere across the majors. EUR/USD has gained a few points while AUD/USD is close to unchanged on the session after losing ground to lows under 0.6900 early and then rebounding. NZD/USD has lost points after the disappointing data on jobs (Q2 data was released today). The jobs data disappointment was offset by wage gains though, which will keep the RBNZ on the boil for further policy tightening to come (the next meeting is August 17).
USD/CAD rose early but has since retraced to be net a touch lower on the day (i.e. CAD a little stronger).
Geopolitics featured prominently, with US House Speaker Pelosi continuing her visit to Taiwan. There were further measures announced in China’s economic intimidation campaign against the nation, most notably a halt to natural sand exports to Taiwan. This will impact on semiconductor manufacture. There are alternative sources, of course, but it’s a hiccup nonetheless.
News of another crypto theft, this time in the order of at least USD5mn, crossed the news wires (see bullets above).
NZD on the disappointing jobs numbers:
