Forex news for Asia trading Monday 27 February 2017

Weekend:

Friday (ICYMI):

If you wanted reheated leftovers for breakfast you were in luck today. On Friday Ryan reported on the increase in speculation of a new Scottish independence referendum:

Well, that got rehashed in early Asia today, on the back of a story in the UK Times over the weekend, with Nicola Sturgeon apparently to make a renewed push this week for an agreement in March:

Cable saw sellers hit it to below 1.24 (briefly). It bounced a little and is straddling 1.2430 as I update.

USD/JPY was a mover on the session, early highs around 112.30 soon gave way and it slid under 112. An article in the Wall Street Journal on the 'world's most radical experiment in monetary policy' not ' working had a small impact on the yen only (if any).

On the data front we got more Q4 GDP-relevant data from Australia today (there is more to come on Tuesday and then the GDP data itself on Wednesday). It wasn't decisive, with a huge surge in profits having the shine taken off it by weak wages growth. Inventory data was a miss also, which will weigh directly on the GDP result (subtracting 0.2%). AUD has ticked a little higher on the session but is still under 0.77. NZD/USD is little changed.

China iron ore and rebar (futures) are both up >4% on the session.

EUR and CHF traded subdued ranges and both are not much changed as i update.

Gold, ditto, little change, oil a few cents higher on the day here.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei -0.66%
  • Shanghai -0.27%
  • HK +0.08%
  • ASX -0.32%
  • (ps. S&P500 futures (ES) opened at a new high today)

Still to come:

More:

Photographer: Qilai Shen/Bloomberg
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