Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 16 February 2017

  • Ex-BOJ Shirai: QQE corrected the overvaluation of the yen
  • ZH: The "Catalyst" For The Market's Inexplicable Surge: $17 Bn Trade Gone Wrong
  • Economic data due from the US today (and more Fed speak)
  • China TLF loans maturing today won't be rolled over (and why not to worry about that)
  • Australian January employment report - analyst responses
  • Sth Korean finmin says to review measures possible on won-yen rate
  • "BOJ's Kuroda warns low rates may sow seeds of new financial crisis"
  • China's Ministry of Commerce: GDP to rise by more than 6.5% in 2017
  • USD slipping a little more
  • 2000 words on the Australian employment report (actually two pics)
  • US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, Japan finmin Aso held phone talks Thursday
  • PBOC sets USD/CNY reference rate for today at 6.8629 (vs. yesterday at 6.8632)
  • Fed's Dudley: hard to factor fiscal policy into forecast at moment
  • Australia data: (Jan) Employment change +13.5K (vs. +10K expected)
  • BOJ's Kuroda: Risk of another global financial crisis has fallen a lot
  • Times reports that the UK plans to ask for share of >EUR150b assets from EU
  • BUBA's Wuermeling warns against a global currency war
  • Heads up for the Australian jobs report, due at the bottom of the hour
  • Australia - Consumer Inflation Expectations (Feb): 4.1% (prior 4.3%)
  • NZ data - ANZ Consumer Confidence Index (Feb) : -1.0% m/m (prior +3.4%)
  • NZ Finance Minister Joyce: NZ economic outlook is positive
  • More from RBA's Ellis: Remains sceptical of some macroprudential measures
  • RBA's Ellis: Pockets of potential mortgage stress, otherwise benign debt picture
  • BoA / ML: Target on downside for EUR/USD in H1, then higher in H2
  • "Italy could be the real canary in the EU coal mine"
  • Trade ideas thread - Thursday 16 February 2017
  • AUD and NZD orderboards
  • ECB's Weidmann says it would be a mistake to roll back financial market regulation
  • Once again...Record closes for US major indices
  • Japan press: Japan's finance minister says yen not weak, blurting out rate
  • Economic data due from Asia today - jobs report from Australia

ICYMI:

  • Forexlive America forex news wrap. Stronger data but wages still lag

Another small range day for Asia here. As the title says, there was some USD weakness. USD/JPY moved above 114.20 in the early part of the Tokyo morning but soon started to lose ground and dropped under 113.80 at one stage. There really wasn't much of significance in news nor data, & US yields didn't do a real lot.

EUR and CHF also showed some small gains against the dollar, as did GBP.

The focus during the timezone today was on the Australian jobs report (for January). The headline was a beat but the details were mixed indeed:

  • Australia data: (Jan) Employment change +13.5K (vs. +10K expected)
  • 2000 words on the Australian employment report (actually two pics)
  • Australian January employment report - analyst responses

The Australian dollar had (finally) popped 0.77 during overnight trade (US timezone) and it maintained above the figure here in Asia but without much follow-through.

NZD also a touch higher on the session. Gold higher while oil is little changed.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei -0.53%
  • Shanghai +0.19%
  • HK +0.41%
  • ASX -0.08%

More:

Still to come:

  • Economic data due from the US today (and more Fed speak)