Forex news for Asia trading Friday 4 December 2015

  • OPEC meeting today - here is the schedule, when we can expect announcements etc.
  • Morgan Stanley asks what's next for the euro after the ECB
  • China weighs circuit breakers for A shares stock trading
  • PBOC official says entry into SDR basket will help discover the yuan's value
  • OK ForexLive traders ... I really need your help ... please!
  • Morgan Stanley Top 10 FX trades for 2016
  • Non-farm payrolls preview: The numbers that matter for the Dec jobs report
  • Japan October wages data, cash earnings +0.7% y/y (+0.5% expected)
  • People’s Bank of China (PBOC) sets yuan reference rate at 6.3851
  • Australia - Retail Sales for October: +0.5% m/m (expected +0.4%)
  • New Zealand data ANZ Commodity Price index for November: -5.6% (prior +6.9%)
  • Win a ForexLive t-shirt in the non-farm payrolls contest ... with a twist!
  • Got any spare glitter? In New York? Draghi speaking there Friday
  • ECB's Nowotny: Euro area has an economic upswing
  • Trade ideas thread for Friday 4 December 2015

Asia came in the back foot today, a bit shell shocked after the huge EUR moves overnight. Another factor keeping it range-bound, of course, it was a pre-NFP day.

I'll start with AUD and NZD. NZD/USD popped 0.6700, triggering a few stops up there (there are more above 0.6710) but ran into heavy selling (for the kiwi, that is), with more to chew through before we can approach those stops i mentioned. AUD/USD traded a similar pattern, ticking higher early before being sold off again. Its the same story with stops, there are decent sized above today's high, but plenty of selling to get through before then. Mike will have an orderboard update in the London AM. Data from NZ and Oz today had limited impact (see bullets, above).

USD/JPY ticked a little higher, up 50 or so points from its low before retracing a few points and stabilising. Cable gave back 30 or so points from its US highs and then sat doing not too much at all. USD/CHF was pretty much a sideways affair also, around 50 points above US lows.

But surely EUR was nuts after its huge shock and enormous overnight range? Ahhh .... nope. Liquidity was lighter than normal, with not a lot of stepping up being done. Fair enough I suppose, but even with thinner than normal conditions there was little in the way of any impulsive type moves, and what might have qualified failed to follow through to much of an extent. There was a Tokyo morning run through 1.0950 (briefly) on a 30 point move higher, but it retraced back to 1.0900 and thereabouts. It spent the rest of the session grinding it out back toward 1.0935, which is pretty much where it is as I update. EUR/JPY is in the middle of its 40-odd point range as I write, tracking around 134.00.

Gold tracked sideways, as did oil ahead of OPEC.

Regional equities with Shanghai closed for the lunch break ... lower after the falls on Wall Street overnight:

  • Shanghai -1.19%
  • Nikkei -2.26%
  • HK -1.12%
  • ASX -1.65%

Still to come:

  • Non-farm payrolls preview: The numbers that matter for the Dec jobs report
  • OPEC meeting today - here is the schedule, when we can expect announcements etc
  • Got any spare glitter? In New York? Draghi speaking there Friday