Forex news for Asia trading Monday 2 May 2016

Monday:

  • SNB's Jordan speech due during the European / US time zone Monday
  • ECB's Draghi speech coming up during European time zone
  • Japan - Nikkei Manufacturing PMI (final April): 48.2 (preliminary was 48.0)
  • Australia - April business confidence 5 (prior 6) & conditions 9 (prior 12)
  • Waiting for the PBOC USD/CNY mid-point? Not today, it's a holiday in China
  • Australia - Melbourne Institute April inflation: 0.1% m/m (prior 0.0%) 1.5% y/y (prior 1.7)
  • RBA policy meeting tomorrow - latest survey results on what to expect
  • Move over China, time for front-page questions on India's GDP data
  • Japan is just popping back into the office for the day to trash the Nikkei
  • Australia - AIG Manufacturing PMI for April: 53.4 (prior 58.1)
  • Australia data - CoreLogic RP house price index (April) +1.7% m/m
  • Fed's Dudley crossing the wires - no comments on economy, monetary policy outlook
  • ICYMI - US puts China, Japan, Germany (+others) on unfair advantage currency watch list
  • Halliburton, Baker Hughes merger looking like it will not proceed
  • Australian Treasurer Morrison: Budget needs to provide non-mining investment impetus
  • FT: BoE preparing contingency plans for Brexit
  • Trade ideas thread - Monday 2 May 2016
  • Monday morning FX - 2 May 2016 - foreign exchange prices, early indications

Weekend:

  • Finance Minister Aso says US monitoring will not constrain Japan on FX
  • IEA's Birol says oil prices may have bottomed out but depends on global growth
  • ECB's Coeure says giving up on inflation target is not an option
  • China Manufacturing PMI April 50.1 vs 50.4 exp
  • Warren Buffett loves Amazon
  • Russia defends its interception of US reconnaissance plane approaching its borders
  • Brexit wouldn't be such a bad thing for London's financial markets
  • USD/JPY sliced like a hot knife through butter (Hey! Cut it out with the metaphors)
  • Analyst vs. Trader vs. Risk Manager

Some decent swings in the yen today, with USD/JPY opening near last week's lows in the early hours of Monday only to jump back to around 106.70 and then drop all the way back toward earlier lows before recovering again! There was not much in the way of pertinent news flow, not that the yen needs it at present.

USD/JPY hit down to 106.14 and thereabouts today, its lowest since October 2014.

EUR/USD managed a small gain on the session, as did cable, while USD/CHF is little changed.

NZD ticked higher, through to around 0.7020 (briefly) before drifting back under 0.7 again as I update. Again, there has been little in the way of pertinent news to drive it. AUD/USD didn't have so good a performance, its up small on the session.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei -3.69% (Doing some catch up (down?) after Tokyo being closed Friday. Oh, and as a ps,, Japanese markets are closed Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week).
  • Shanghai - China closed today for a holiday
  • ASX -0.32% (Westpac dropped today on disappointing H1 results; other Aussie bank shares dropped too but WPAC was the worst of the bunch)

Still to come: Draghi and Jordan speak in Europe/US time (see bullets above)

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