Forex news for Asia trading Wednesday 11 October 2017

We had a bit of movement here in forex in Asia today, but as the title to the wrap says the moves were not large.

Australian data was a bit of a nice surprise - the first positive reading (optimists>pessimists) on the monthly Westpac Consumer Sentiment indicator since November of 2016. That seemed to help the AUD along, with AUD/USD popping above 0.7800, albeit briefly.

The higher AUD was helped by an across-the-board weaker USD (more on this to come) but once a few stops were cleared above 0.7800 AUD/USD lost ground, back toward its early session low circa 0.7775/80.

On the USD, the focus came to rest on comments from Federal Reserve Dallas President Robert Kaplan who said, most notably, that the yield on the 10-year Treasury had fallen despite Fed rate hikes this year, a development he viewed as "a little ominous":

  • "I view that as a comment on future economic growth.
  • "And what I don't want to see us do is raise rates so fast that we get an inverted yield curve because history has shown an inverted yield curve has tended to be a precursor to a recession."

The weakness in the USD saw EUR/USD above 1.1820, USD/JPY under 112.30 (and moves elsewhere) but these were not to last too long. As I update EUR/USD has slid back to to circa 1.1800 and USD/JPY is circa 112.50. CHF, GBP, CAD have all given back their little gains too.

Like I said, small ranges ... but that's all we got.

I posted an update on NZ election progress earlier - it appears a decision will not be made on October 12 as NZ First leader Winston Peters earlier promised (you know what a pollies promises are worth, right?). The NZD traded in a similar pattern to other currencies against the USD today, but as I write its slightly stronger than others.

What have I missed? Japanese data was better and the PBOC jacked up the onshore yuan at the reference rate setting again today (see bullets above).

And, still to come:

And, then later from the Federal Reserve:

And, here's a new one for the Eminem fans .... if he was ever away he is back big time with this. (ps. If you are a Trump supporter you might want to not watch/listen.)