Forex news for Asia trading Thursday 20 April 2017

  • More from China's SAFE: Don't need to boost exports by devaluating yuan
  • China's SAFE: Pressure on capital outflow eased significantly in Q1
  • French election poll latest ... Macron +1, Le Pen unchged, Fillon -1 , Melenchon unchgd
  • Japan March trade balance recap - surging exports
  • Australia - NAB (Quarterly) Business Confidence unchanged at 6
  • PBOC sets USD/CNY central rate at 6.8792 (vs. yesterday at 6.8664)
  • USD/JPY & EUR/JPY orders
  • EUR/USD orderboard
  • AUD and NZD orders
  • More from Japan fin min Aso: Improvements in economy make tax hike more feasible
  • Japan - Trade balance for March: Y 614.7bn (expected Y 608.0bn)
  • Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso remarks crossing
  • Australia data - CBA March Business Sales Indicator - strongest growth in 15 months
  • Reuters Tankan: Manufacturing index 26 in April (25 prior)
  • New Zealand Q1 inflation data: 1% q/q (expected 0.8%)
  • NZD traders heads up for Q1 inflation data due at 2245GMT
  • Former Fed head Volcker: US in a much better position to prevent bank failures
  • Barclays iron ore price forecasts
  • Brexit - YouGov poll (1st since election called) puts May on 48%
  • ICYMI: Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Oil tumbles nearly 4%
  • Trade ideas thread - Thursday 20 April 2017
  • Brexit in the FT: Brussels starts to freeze Britain out of EU contracts
  • Greek press: EU to cut Greek growth forecast next month
  • Economic data due from Asia today - NZ CPI, Japan trade

NZD was a big mover today, jumping on the release of New Zealand first quarter inflation data (NZ inflation data is only once a quarter). The q/q and y/y inflation headline came in higher than expected, the y/y jumped above the Reserve Bank of New Zealand target band mid-point for the first time in 5 years.

The higher headline inflation was driven bigly (we need to say bigly more often, right?) by higher petrol, and cigarettes and tobacco prices (note that cigarette & and tobacco taxes are raised each year in NZ ... in March!). Such rises will be transitory and inflation will not maintain at the levels announced today, thus the impact on RBNZ policy of today's data is minimal. Indeed, the RBNZ foreshadowed temporarily higher inflation in March statement.

Nevertheless, the higher inflation number prompted an immediate marking higher of the NZD, to circa 0.7040 and its traded thereabouts and just under ever since, as I update.

Elsewhere ranges were subdued indeed. The underperfoming AUD had a better session than recently, edging a few tics higher net. We saw, once again, a good business conditions and confidence survey (NAB's quarterly business survey). A little watched gauge of spending in the economy also returned strong results for March (CBA business sales, in bullets above)

Yen movement was subdued also, a 25 or so point range only. March trade balance data from Japan showed a strong surge in exports (see bullets above).

EUR, CHF and GBP are all little changed against USD.

The People's Bank of China sliced the yuan value against the USD, its biggest drop on the reference rate for 3 weeks. China's State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) followed up by telling us the country doesn't need to depreciate the yuan to boost exports. Go figure.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei +0.31%
  • Shanghai -0.10%
  • HK +0.34%
  • ASX +0.20%