Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 8 July 2015

EUR - Greece

  • EU tells Tsipras the party's over as euro exit door swings open
  • The Economist: "Grexit seems imminent"
  • FT: Greece given five-day deadline to avoid bankruptcy
  • Barclays continues to see Grexit as most likely scenario
  • Gundlach: Greece's likely exit from euro "opens Pandora's box" precedent
  • Just waking up? Here's some Greece with your bacon and eggs.
  • Dutch PM Rutte on Greece: We still hope for a miracle
  • Tsipras comments now ... Says he aims for 'final exit from the crisis'
  • Malta's Muscat: Sunday is 'the very last chance for Greece'
  • Comments from EU's Tusk, Juncker .... and more from Merkel
  • More from Merkel: Greece will need stronger measures to plug financing gap
  • Merkel: We all share responsibility for the future of the Euro
  • Austria's Faymann: If no agreement with Greece on Sunday, must prepare plan B
  • Meeting concludes - Schelling says direct loans to Greece weren't discussed
  • AEP on Greece, EUR ... Events spinning out of control ... hurtling towards Grexit

China stocks smashed (again)

  • PBOC says it will help China Securities Finance Corp. get sufficient liquidity
  • China - Shanghai Composite to open down 6.97%, CSI300 down 7.1%
  • China - 1429 out of 2776 stocks suspended today, Bail-out fund rumour
  • China regulator says to increase limit for insurers' investments in blue chip stocks
  • Quiz: How Well Do You Know China's Stock Market?
  • 500+ stocks suspended from trade in China - if they don't trade, they can't fall, right?
  • China iron ore futures fell 8% on the day, to a record low

And ...

  • Abe aide says Japan may need 2.5tln yen stimulus before next sales tax hike
  • Japan data - current account, trade balance + more
  • Trade ideas thread for Wednesday 8 July 2015
  • API crude oil inventories: -958,000 barrels
  • UK data - BRC Shop Price Index for June: -1.3% m/m (Previous: -1.9%)

The day started with news out of Brussels following the Greece/Europe meeting. In short, there is a follow up meeting on Saturday for Eurogroup finance ministers, by which time its expected Greece will have presented proposals, followed by a full meeting of the leaders of all 28 European community leaders on Sunday.

The long story, of course, is much messier. There was much talk of the coming weekend being the final deadline for Greece. While we have heard such talk before, today's responses from European leaders were much harsher in tone. While history has shown us that Greek decisions have been put off time and time again, cans kicked, muddle-through prevailing, the perception is that this time could well be the time for some harsh resolutions. We'll see. Much more in the headlines, links above.

EUR was barely moved by the commentary surrounding the end of the meeting. It traded sedately around 1.1000 after a late run up in NY to above 1.1040.

The next notable event of the day was the lead up to, and opening of, Chinese stock markets. There were plenty of supportive headlines out of China, talk of a bail-out fund, easings on restrictions on buying ... but these were undercut by suspensions of hundreds of shares from trading, which gave a strong hint as to the mood of panic in the market and amongst authorities.

Markets opened a lot lower, but have ticked back some of the slide as I update.

AUD and NZD traded lower as the Chinese markets sold off, most notably against the yen as USD/JPY tested down to 122.00.

USD/JPY caught a bit of a bid on Honda's comments (above), but soon retested its session lows.

Oil slipped lower on the session, retracing some of its US gains. Gold traded in a small band, barely changed on the session overall.

Regional stocks were lower along with China today, the Nikkei was 1.5% lower going into the Tokyo lunch break. HK really caught the disease, the HangSeng down 5+% at one stage in morning trade.