Forex news for Asia trading Monday 19 October 2015

Monday

China Q3 GDP and other data:

  • China Q3 GDP responses
  • Comments from China Stats Bureau on GDP release
  • China September data: industrial production, retail sales & fixed asset investment
  • China Q3 GDP 6.9% y/y
  • 10 things to watch in the China GDP report
  • Past BOJ board member says further easing not needed now
  • PBOC sets USD/CNY mid-point today at 6.3527
  • BOJ Governor Kuroda: CPI is likely to be about 0% for the time being
  • DB on the Bank of Canada meeting this week
  • ASB 'grudgingly' expect the RBNZ to wait until December to deliver next rate cut
  • HKMA's Chan - does not see hard landing for China's economy
  • Preview of the RBA Minutes due on Tuesday 20 October 2015
  • UK data - October Rightmove House Prices: +0.6% m/m (prior +0.9%)
  • Barclays on how to trade EUR/USD on the ECB meeting this week
  • UK Sunday Times headline: "Draghi to signal further QE"
  • Goldman Sachs says PBOC has beaten the yuan bears, now have room to cut rates
  • NZ Services PMI (September): 59.3 (prior 58.5)
  • Trade ideas thread for Monday 19 October 2015
  • Comments from ECB's Nowotny - too early to talk of QE extension
  • China must hasten infrastructure investment to stabilize growth: state advisor

Weekend:

  • China's Li urges keeping liquidity at reasonable level and adequate credit growth
  • Switzerland headed to the polling booths today but don't expect many headlines
  • Preview of the China Q3 GDP data (and more) coming up on Monday
  • Vegas oddsmakers see Trudeau winning Canadian election
  • Merkel says that if Ukraine takes measures against corruption then Germany is ready to invest
  • China's Li says that achieving GDP growth of around 7% "is not easy"
  • Japan's Aso says BOJ unlikely to ease further anytime soon

A Monday of waiting for data from China, the Q3 GDP print was the focus along with industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales.

Ahead of then we did have some minor movement in currencies, though, emphasis on minor. EUR/USD was a little higher, and a tiny upmove for cable also. USD/JPY trickled a few points lower in the session leading up to the China release, while AUD and NZD both lost some ground also.

The above expectation (but lowest since 2009) GDP print seemed to strike a nice balance for Chinese authorities, not too slow that it calls into question existing policies, but slow enough, especially as accompanied by the soft IP and softish Investment data to encourage more stimulus steps (and retail sales were a beat).

AUD/USD liked the data, it was taken up 30+ points and then consolidated higher still. NZD went along higher also. Regional stocks were a little better also, with the Nikkei coming back from an earlier dip helping USD/JPY to a fresh session high. Barely.

Oil did not do much today, while gold is slightly down only.

Regional equities at the China lunch break:

  • Shanghai +0.50%
  • Nikkei +0.08%
  • HK -0.14%
  • ASX +0.03%