Forex news for Asia trading
for Friday
16
April 2021
Morning
trade in Asia has been characterised by a stronger USD across the
major FX board. The move was not driven by news nor data (although we
had a reasonable flow of both) but a combination of position trimming
ahead of the big data release from China (more to come on this
below) and the approaching weekend.
On
the news front the broader acceptance of cryptocurrency was chipped
away at yet again, this time with Turkey banning the use of digital
currencies for transactions to purchase goods and services (see
bullets above). Dominant crypto BTC has hardly been dented by the
news and DOGE (flavour of the week it seems) continued to bubble (no
judgement intended) away higher.
Fed
officials were all over the wires in late US/early Asia with nothing
to suggest any slicing back of stimulus any time soon.
On
the data front the focus was China. Q1 GDP dipped back from Q4 on a
q/q basis (+0.6%
vs. a revised higher +3.2% in Q4 2020) but printed a record (for data going back to
1992) +18.3% y/y. Clearly the y/y result benefited hugely from the
base effect of Q1 2020 being the nadir of China’s pandemic-impacted
economy but a record is a record. In addition to the Q1 economic
growth numbers China report March ‘activity’ data; with a miss
for investment and industrial production (but both were still strong)
and a beat for retail sales. The retail sales beat is especially
welcome as it is another indication of the recovery in domestic
demand in China, the economy there has been leaning on exports and
property market-fuelled growth, the consumer has been missing
somewhat but appears to be back.
EUR,
AUD, NZD, GBP, yen all slipped against the big dollar. CHF down a touch, CAD also, although it was (relatively) resilient.
Regional
equities:
-
Japan’s
Nikkei +0.1%, Topix -0.05% -
China’s
Shanghai Composite +0.15% -
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng -0.7% -
Australia’s
S&P/ASX 200 -0.27%
DOGE higher again, off a little as I post: