Forex Today: Antipodeans bounce on China PMI, EZ & UK services PMI on tap

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

FX Today was a quiet affair in Asia, with the risk-on theme the main driver, especially after the release of cheerful Chinese service activity data. The US dollar failed to extend its recovery mode against its major peers, thereby, lifting the sentiment around most majors. The Antipodeans benefited the most and staged a solid comeback while the Yen maintained the offers on the back of higher Asian equities and Treasury yields, which continue to benefit from more-hawkish-than anticipated FOMC minutes.

Main topics in Asia

Japan Dec final manufacturing PMI hit the highest since Feb 2014

Reuters offers more insights on the Japanese final manufacturing PMI report for December released earlier today.

China's Caixin services PMI: Solid upturn in business activity

China's Caixin services PMI for December came at 53.9 vs 51.8 exp and 51.9 last, which represents a solid upturn in Chinese business activity at the end of 2017.

BoJ’s Kuroda: Will continue patiently with easy monetary policy

BoJ Governor Kuroda is out on the wires now, via Reuters, Kuroda, making his first 2018 speech in Tokyo on the Japanese economy.

Saudi oil exports to China hit one-year low

Early Bloomberg tanker tracking data showed on Wednesday, Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports to China dropped by 20% last month when compared to November.

Key Focus ahead

Heading into Europe, the economic calendar is likely to be relatively eventful, with the final services PMI reports from the Euro area economies to dominate the markets. Also, the UK services PMI data is slated for release, which is expected to show an uptick in the UK’s business activity. Further, the GBP traders will also pay attention to the UK’s net lending to individuals data among other second-tier releases. In the NA session, all eyes will remain on the US ADP jobs, unemployment claims and final services data while the Canadian RMPI figures will be closely eyed for any moves on the CAD ahead of the EIA crude inventory data release.

EUR/USD manages to keep 1.2000, but for how long?

The EUR/USD pair consolidated its post-FOMC minutes-led slide just ahead of 1.20 handle almost through the Asian session, with the risks tilted to the downside ahead of the Eurozone and US macro releases.

GBP/USD: Recovery to gain traction above 1.3530, awaits UK PMI

Fresh bids emerged near 1.3500 levels, which prompted a tepid recovery in GBP/USD during the Asian trades, with the bulls now look to regain the 1.3530 barrier heading into Europe.

Trump to hold 2 separate meetings with Senate Republicans today

The White House said in a statement late-Wednesday that the US President Trump will hold two separate meetings with Senate Republicans on Thursday, one on immigration and the other on 2018 legislative priorities, Reuters reports.

Expect USD/JPY to stay 112 - 113 this NFP week – J.P Morgan

Bloomberg reports the outlook for the USD/JPY pair outlined by the analysts at J.P Morgan (JPM) for this week, with the key US NFP report in sight.

GMT	Event	Consensus	Previous
Thursday, Jan 04
07:00	GBP Nationwide Housing Prices n.s.a (YoY)	2.0%	2.5%
07:00	GBP Nationwide Housing Prices s.a (MoM)	0.2%	0.1%
08:55	EUR Markit Services PMI	55.8	55.8
08:55	EUR Markit PMI Composite	58.7	58.7
09:00	EUR Markit Services PMI	56.5	56.5
09:00	EUR Markit PMI Composite	58	58
09:30	GBP Net Lending to Individuals (MoM)	£4.9B	£4.8B
09:30	GBP Consumer Credit	£1.500B	£1.451B
09:30	GBP Mortgage Approvals	64.000K	64.575K
09:30	GBP Markit Services PMI	53.8	53.8
09:30	GBP M4 Money Supply (MoM)	0.4%	0.6%
09:30	GBP M4 Money Supply (YoY)		4.1%
12:30	USD Challenger Job Cuts (YoY)		35.038K
13:15	USD ADP Employment Change	190K	190K
13:30	USD Continuing Jobless Claims	1.947M	1.943M
13:30	USD Initial Jobless Claims	240K	245K
13:30	CAD Raw Material Price Index	4.5%	3.8%
13:30	CAD Industrial Product Price (MoM)	0.8%	1.0%
14:45	USD Markit Services PMI	52.4	52.4
14:45	USD Markit PMI Composite	53.7	53.0
15:30	USD EIA Natural Gas Storage change	-221B	-112B
16:00	USD EIA Crude Oil Stocks change	-5.260M	-4.609M
18:30	USD Fed's Bullard speech
23:50	JPY Monetary Base (YoY)	13.0%	13.2%
Friday, Jan 05
n/a	AUD HIA New Home Sales (MoM)		-6.1%

Author

Dhwani Mehta

FXStreet

Residing in Mumbai (India), Dhwani is a Senior Analyst and Manager of the Asian session at FXStreet. She has over 10 years of experience in analyzing and covering the global financial markets, with specialization in Forex and commodities markets.

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