ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: RBA SLASHES inflation forecast
Forex news for Asia trading Friday 6 May 2016
- Japan media reporting LDP vice pres. sees possibility of sales-tax hike delay
- More on Goldman Sachs hiking their iron ore price forecasts
- PBOC likely to lean into a "weakening yuan bias"
- Japan - April Nikkei PMIs: Services 49.3 (prior 50.0) & Composite 48.9 (prior 49.9)
- Aussie press: RBA ready to cut again
- RBA Statement: Policy easing based on lower inflation outlook, cooling in housing
- PBOC sets yuan reference rate for today at 6.5202 (vs. yesterday at 6.5128)
- Goldman Sachs raise their iron ore price forecasts
- More comments from the Fed heads crossing
- Fed's Kaplan is like the Energizer Bunny! MOAR comments!
- Australia - Construction PMI for April 50.8 (prior 45.2)
- RBNZ bans MediaWorks from press conferences
- AUD and NZD orderboards
- The real story of the RBA rate cut (via WikiLeaks)
- Trump: "Let's be honest, I'm a low-interest-rate person" (but he'll turf Yellen out)
- Goldman Sachs NFP hot tip .... 240K jobs gain
- Here it is - the TGIF trade ideas thread, Friday 6 May 2016
The Reserve Bank of Australia released their latest quarterly Statement on Monetary Policy (SoMP) today. In these statements they often tinker with their forecasts, a nudge here, a tickle there. Not today.
Today they slashed their near-term inflation forecast; from previously expecting core inflation at 2 to 3% at the end of 2016 to 1 to 2% now. There is more in the bullets, above.
- RBC has brought forward their call for an RBA cut from August to June
- Macquarie have responded quickly, they were calling for a further RBA rate cut in November of this year but have brought that call forward to August.
- BNP are calling for a June cut (from August prior)
On the release of the RBA's Statement the AUD/USD was marked lower immediately, dropping 40-odd points from around 0.7460 just prior to the release. It fell further from there.
NZD/USD followed along (not to the same extent), trading under 0.6870 but holding around 0.6850 as of writing.
Hourly AUD/USD chart as I update
Elsewhere it was a bit of a pre-NFP snoozer. USD/JPY had a little movement, ticking a few points higher as Tokyo got underway after a 3-day holiday, but it soon rejected 107.40, trading lower to be around 107.10 as I write.
EUR, CHF and GBP are all little changed.
Gold has edged higher, very small, while oil is down a few cents on the session.
Regional equities:
- Nikkei -0.83%
- Shanghai -1.85%
- HK -1.3%
- ASX -0.48%
Still to come:
- Nonfarm payroll will be the central focus (get your entry in!)
More:
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.