Forex news for Asia trading Tuesday 28 April 2015

Federal Reserve:

  • Federal Reserve should have already hiked rates says economist
  • Mohamed El-Erian: Fed to begin raising rates in September, "the loosest tightening" ever
  • PIMCO: 3 things to watch for at the FOMC meeting
  • Preview of the FOMC meeting this week from BoA/Merrill Lynch

Japan

  • "Japan Retail Sales Slump Flashes Warning Signal for Kuroda"
  • Japan economy minister Amari: To announce fiscal plan by summer
  • Japan - Retail sales for March: -1.9% m/m (expected +0.6%)
  • BOJ meeting this week - 2 of 34 analysts expect expansion of easing

Australia / RBA

  • RBA head Stevens: Says he doesn't want to comment on monetary policy
  • Correction from MNI - RBA STEVENS DID NOT MAKE UNEMPLOYMENT COMMENT
  • Australia - Conference Board Leading Index +0.5% m/m. 3rd consecutive increase
  • Australia - ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence: 111.8 (prior was 108.8)
  • Australian Treasurer Hockey - AAA rating at risk if budget not returned to surplus

New Zealand

  • RBNZ meeting - policy expected on hold, but a shift to more dovish bias?

More:

  • Is QE coming to China?
  • Greek PM Tsipras - Greece has liquidity problem, government dealing with it
  • Greek PM Tsipras - Greek default would be a failure for Europe and Merkel
  • Apple beats $2.33 per share vs $2.16 est. Rev 58B vs 56.08B

EUR, CHF, GBP, yen ... all very rangebound here in Asia today. USD/CHF did drop 20 or so points from early highs, while EUR/CHF drifted lower along with it. But, as said ... tight ranges prevailed for these currencies in Asia.

The downgrade from Fitch overnight for Japan drew little response here today, although economy minister Amari pointedly mentioned it while saying he wasn't fussed (see bullets, above).

AUD was more active. It sold off in the early morning ahead of a scheduled speech from RBA Governor Stevens, dipping 35 or so points from overnight highs. Stevens specifically mentioned he wasn't going to comment on monetary policy and, good to his word, he didn't. The expected jawboning of the currency, then, didn't eventuate and the AUD/USD moved higher to eventually test, and slightly exceed, the overnight high. As of writing though there has been little follow-through, and not much of a pull-back either. It goes into early Europe as I update nibbling at offers which sit through to 0.7900. Stops above 0.7900 look vulnerable.

NZD/USD lost a few tics on the session, not much in it but AUD/NZD buyers obviously playing a role today.

Oil was weaker on the session. Expectations for more inventory build were cited (API data is due in the late afternoon in the US tomorrow, with EIA data to come the following morning), but the fact there was a huge build in inventory last week with little in the way of much impact seems to have gone unremarked.

Gold shuffled along more or less sideways.

Asian equities as I update:

  • Japan's Nikkei +0.4%
  • Shanghai is a little lower, -0.3%
  • ASX also -0.3%
  • HK down 0.1%