Forex today witnessed a volatile Asian session this Wednesday, as risk-off flows drove markets amid the North Korean headlines, renewed UK political tensions, and reports of an Islamist plot to blow up the UK PM May. Amongst the Asia-pac currencies, the Aussie was the biggest loser on the Australian Q3 GDP miss while the Yen was the strongest. The Kiwi, however, continued to cheer upbeat NZ GDT price index and benefited from broad-based US dollar sell-off.
Meanwhile, the Asian equities traded lower, led by the declines in the Japanese stock. WTI dropped on a build seen in the US API stockpiles data. Gold rebounded from 2-month lows and tested $ 1270 levels on subdued Treasury yields.
Main topics in Asia
Australia's Q3 GDP comes in a touch softer-than-expected
Australia's Gross Domestic Product (QoQ) for Q3 came at 0.6% vs 0.7% exp and 0.8% last, while the yearly reading registered 2.8% vs 3% exp and 1.8% last.
Fed’s Evans: "Why hurry to raise rates?" – NY Times
According to an article reported in the New York Times overnight, Chicago Fed president Charles Evans (voting member) seems in no hurry to raise rates in December.
Sources: Islamist suicide plot to assassinate the UK PM Theresa may foiled - Sky News
Sky News quoted people familiar with the matter, citing that, ‘the security services believe they have stopped an Islamist suicide bomb plot to assassinate the UK Prime Minister’.
BoJ’s Masai: Ultra easy monetary condition created by YCC giving powerful support to economy
Comments crossing the wires from the BoJ board member Masai, via Reuters, are found below.
US B-1B bombers to fly over Korean peninsula - Yonhap
South Korea’s new agency, Yonhap, quoted an unidentified military source, citing that the US B-1B Lancer bombers will fly over the Korean peninsula on Wednesday as part of a large-scale joint aerial drill being staged with South Korea this week.
Key Focus ahead
Heading into Europe, there is nothing much to report in terms of the economic news, except for the second-liner German factory orders and Eurozone retail PMI. The NA session, on the other hand, remains quite eventful, with the US ADP employment data due on the cards ahead of the Bank of Canada (BOC) rate decision and EIA crude oil inventory report.
EUR/USD extends the bounce, eyes on 1.1880 ahead of US ADP
The recovery attempts in the EUR/USD pair from nine-day troughs finally surpassed the stiff resistances located near 1.1830, the confluence zone of daily pivot and 20-DMA, with the rates now heading for a test of 1.1850 levels.
GBP/USD: Will the recovery sustain amid UK political woes?
The GBP/USD pair extended its overnight declines in Asia and went on to hit a low just ahead of 1.34 handle before finding fresh bids on broad USD sell-off.
Challenging to find a trend in currency markets
It’s difficult to determine a trend into year-end as USD has been dominated by Washington noise of late, be it the tax bill debate or the reports around the Mueller investigation.
James Knightley, Chief International Economist at ING, explains that October's Bank of Canada meeting saw interest rates being held at 1% following two prior consecutive hikes in July and September.
NFP preview: Expect strong November report - Danske Bank
Analysts from Danske Bank, expect employment growth of 195K in November. The official US jobs report will be released on Friday.
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