Forex and Bitcoin news for Asia trading Monday 5 March 2018
- Anti-establishment parties are outperforming in Italian election preliminary results
- A little heads up on BOJ speakers later in the day
- AUD traders - Tuesday is a big day - RBA and plenty of data. All the previews in 1 place
- It's central bank bonanza this week too, here's what is on the agenda
- AUD traders - RBA meet Tuesday - a what to expect preview
- 3 bank trade of the week ideas/recommendations (EUR/USD and more)
- Barclays on the week ahead
- Australian retail sales data for January due Tuesday - preview
- Heads up for large FX option expiries for the early part of this week (EUR/USD, USD/JPY)
- Australia data preview - Q4 current account due Tuesday (GDP data input)
- Italian election vote count continuing - more sealt projections coming in
- Australia data preview - Public demand (key growth driver & GDP input)
- Japan chief cabinet secretary Suga says will respond to US tariffs
- Moody's sees sustained elevated debt levels for Australia in the next 4 years
- Australia data preview - Q4 net exports due Tuesday (GDP data input)
- Such a busy day and the week isn't even over yet! :-D More to come ...
- China private services PMI up now, Feb comes in at 54.2 (exp. 54.3)
- FX option expiries for Monday 5 March 2018 - 10am NY cut
- Getting some Italy seat projections coming through (actual vote counts)
- FX positioning (leveraged and real money net USD sellers)
- New Zealand Treasury's Monthly Economic Indicators out now
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 6.3431 (vs. Friday at 6.3334)
- PBOC's Yi says yuan is stable, rate decided by the market
- Australia (GDP input data) Q4 profits: 2.2% q/q (expected 1.5%)
- Japan services PMI (Feb): 51.7 (prior 51.9)
- Australia - ANZ job ads (February) -0.3% m/m (prior +6.2%)
- Australia (GDP input data) Q4 inventories: 0.2% q/q (expected 0.5%)
- Australia - Building approvals (January) +17.1% m/m (vs. expected +5.0%)
- Italian election counts (not exit polls) coming in now - 5 Star on +34%
- China Premier Li says China will keep prudent monetary policy neutral
- China says it will cut both steel and coal capacity this year
- Australia - private monthly inflation measure +0.1% m/m (prior 0.6%)
- New Zealand - ANZ Commodity Price index (February) +2.8% m/m (prior +0.7%)
- China Premier Li says country is targeting around 6.5% GDP growth in 2018
- Forex on the move as Tokyo trade gets active: 3 big losers
- Italy headed "for serious political gridlock"
- Weekend oil news - Libya’s biggest oil field said to have halted production
- Italian election - projections on parliament make up coming now
- Fed's Kashkari ‘nervous about cost to economy’ of sending tough message to China
- Italy election ... OMG! (not) ... And so EUR/USD makes a new high for the day
- Australia services PMI for February (the CBA one) 54.2 (prior 53.8)
- Italy election exit polls coming through now - point to a hung parliament
- This is the important message from Kuroda on Friday (ICYMI)
- Heads up for some news on the Italian election - due at the top of the hour
- Australia services PMI for February comes in at 54.0, a fall from Jan's 54.9
- Where to for the AUD/USD - a guide to the minefield ahead today
- Australia GDP due later in the week, but 2 big inputs due today - preview
- Australia data preview – GDP due later in the week, but 2 inputs today to watch
- 3 hot (not just) forex talking points for Monday
- Australia data preview – January building approvals
Weekend:
Trump shoots back on EU tariffs (and other international complaints)
There will be no exemptions to US steel tariff - report
German SPD confirms that members voted in favour of coalition deal
German SPD members vote in favour of coalition deal - report
China says it does not want a trade war with the US
Voting begins in Italian parliamentary election
Video: I won a shareholder lawsuit
German SPD counts coalition votes
The opening session of the week for forex started out promisingly with a 'gap' higher for the EUR ... not big but a promise of perhaps a busy movement day ahead.
This was not to be.
EUR/USD opened more strongly than its Friday US closing levels, bouyed by news out of Germany that Merkle would be forming government with the support of the SPD. EUR continued to edge a little higher, topping out circa 1.2360 on the breaking news dueirng the early Asian morning that exit polls were indicating an as expected result in the Italian election. 'As expected' it was, but that was a hung parliament which is not usually conducive to a positive currency atmosphere. EUR/USD began a reatace then. It dropped 60 or so points or so, down to around 1.2300 and has since found some sideways just above 1.2360.
As election responses go this was a mild one and we now await further counting, further clarity, and the Europe/UK and then US market response.
USD/JPY, conversely, lost a few points around opening time, it too retraced and has settled close to mid-range circa 105.48. A similar story for USD/CHF, opening a touch softer, then rebound. Cable is a few points lower on the session.
AUD, NZD abd CAD are all a little lower on the day here while maintaining limited ranges.
We had a lot of data from Australia today, plenty of inputs to Q4 GDP. Q4 was October to December last year, so while the GDP is going to be of interest (its published on Wednesday at 11.30 am local time - 0030 GMT on March 7) do remember that it is ancient history now.
Of more interest (to me at least) today was the strong rebound for January building approvals. January ... huh ... also ancient history I guess.
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Still to come:
And, join me on the Asian time zone tomorrow for a huge day - Australian data and RBA decision
