Forex Today: Aussie, Yen – Main laggards in Asia, EZ PMIs, UK jobs – Up next

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

The USD-buying theme remains the main driver across the fx space in Asia this Wednesday, as Treasury yields continued their run higher, awaiting the key FOMC minutes release. Among the Asia-pace currencies, the Aussie and Yen were the main losers, with the Antipodeans tumbling on the back of a bigger-than-expected drop in the Aus construction work done data while the latter lost ground to stronger USD and T-yields, despite moderate risk-aversion. The Kiwi also tracked the Aussie lower, alongside the sell-off in oil prices.

Main topics in Asia

Japan's Asakawa: Recent Yen moves are one-sided

Japan's Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, Masatsugu Asakawa, hitting the wires today talking about recent market movements as they relate to the Yen.

Australia wage price index rose 0.6 percent in December quarter

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported the fourth quarter wage price index at 0.6 percent quarter-on-quarter vs. an expected gain of 0.5 percent.

BOJ's Funo - No need to be too pessimistic about the economy

Comments from Bank of Japan's (BOJ) Funo are crossing the wires via Livesquawk.

IMF on Australia - Near-term risks are more balanced

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) view of Australia economy is crossing the wires via Bloomberg and Livesquawk.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand's new Governor, Adrian Orr

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has a new governor, Adrian Orr, who will begin his tenure at the head of New Zealand's central bank on March 27th.

Key Focus ahead

We have a data-heavy calendar ahead, with a raft of flash manufacturing and services PMI reports from across the Euro area economies to kick-off the session, followed by the UK labor market report, which will be closely eyed for fresh insights on the wage growth numbers.

Later in the NA session, BOE Governor Carney and his company will have their hearings on inflation and the economic outlook before Parliament's Treasury Select Committee (TSC). From the US docket, we have the Markit flash manufacturing and services PMI readings ahead of the existing home sales data. However, the US macro news will play a second fiddle to the FOMC latest meeting minutes release.

EUR/USD - Short-term bear reversal sighted ahead of EZ PMIs

The EUR/USD could regain its mojo if the preliminary Eurozone PMI (due today) show continued expansion in economic activity in February.

GBP/USD staying afloat ahead of unemployment, earnings data

It's a data-loaded Wednesday for the GBP/USD today with Average Earnings growth, ILO 3-month Unemployment Rate, Claimant Count, and Public Sector Net Borrowing, all dropping at 09:30 GMT.

UK: Strong jobs growth to continue and wage growth to pick up - Nomura

Analysts at Nomura are out with their expectations on today’s UK labor market report due to be released at 0930 GMT.

Preview of the FOMC minutes - Nomura

"The FOMC minutes from the 30-31 January meeting should provide additional color on what we perceived to be a marginally hawkish post-meeting statement (January FOMC Recap, Policy Watch, 31 January 2018).”

GMT	Event	Actual	Consensus	Previous
Tuesday, Feb 20
21:00	KRW Producer Price Index Growth	0.4%		0.0% Revised from 0.1%
23:00	NZD RBNZ Governor Grant Spencer speech
23:30	AUD Westpac Leading Index (MoM)	-0.2%	-0.2%	0.2% Revised from 0.3%
Wednesday, Feb 21
24h	CNY Chinese New Year
00:30	JPY Nikkei Manufacturing PMI	54.0	55.2	54.8
00:30	AUD Construction Work Done	-19.4%	-10.0%	16.6% Revised from 15.7%
00:30	AUD Wage Price Index (YoY)	2.1%	2.0%	2.0%
00:30	AUD Wage Price Index (QoQ)	0.6%	0.5%	0.5%
01:10	JPY BOJ Policy Board Member Funo Speech
04:30	JPY All Industry Activity Index (MoM)	0.5%	0.5%	1.0%
05:30	EUR Consumer Confidence Adj			24
05:30	EUR Consumer Spending Volume			2.6%
07:00	EUR Consumer Confidence			24.2
07:00	NOK Labour Force Survey			4.1%
08:00	ZAR Consumer Price Index (YoY)			4.7%
08:00	ZAR Consumer Price Index (MoM)			0.5%
08:00	EUR Non-monetary policy's ECB meeting
08:00	EUR Markit Manufacturing PMI		58.0	58.4
08:00	EUR Markit Services PMI		59.0	59.2
08:00	EUR Markit PMI Composite		59.4	59.6
n/a	CHF Industrial Production (QoQ)			8.6%
n/a	CHF Industrial Production (YoY)			5.5%
08:30	EUR Markit Services PMI		57.0	57.3
08:30	EUR Markit PMI Composite		58.5	59.0
08:30	EUR Markit Manufacturing PMI		60.6	61.1
08:30	SEK Retail Sales (MoM)			-1.4%
08:30	SEK Retail Sales (YoY)			3.3%
09:00	EUR Markit Manufacturing PMI		59.3	59.6
09:00	EUR Markit Services PMI		57.6	58.0
09:00	EUR Markit PMI Composite		58.5	58.8
09:30	GBP Average Earnings excluding Bonus (3Mo/Yr)		2.4%	2.4%
09:30	GBP ILO Unemployment Rate (3M)		4.3%	4.3%
09:30	GBP Average Earnings including Bonus (3Mo/Yr)		2.5%	2.5%
09:30	GBP Claimant Count Change		4.1K	8.6K
09:30	GBP Claimant Count Rate			2.4%
09:30	GBP Public Sector Net Borrowing		£-11.100B	£0.979B
11:00	EUR Current Account Balance			€1.14B
12:00	USD MBA Mortgage Applications			-4.1%
13:55	USD Redbook index (MoM)			-1.1%
13:55	USD Redbook index (YoY)			2.8%
14:00	USD FOMC Member Harker Speech
14:15	GBP BOE's Governor Carney speech
n/a	GBP Inflation Report Hearings
14:15	GBP MPC Member Broadbent Speech
14:15	GBP MPC Member Haldane Speech
14:15	GBP MPC Member Tenreyro Speech
14:45	USD Markit Manufacturing PMI		55.4	55.5
14:45	USD Markit PMI Composite		54.4	53.8
14:45	USD Markit Services PMI		54.0	53.3
15:00	USD Existing Home Sales (MoM)		5.60M	5.57M
15:00	USD Existing Home Sales Change (MoM)		0.9%	-3.6%
n/a	USD 5-Year Note Auction			2.434%
19:00	USD FOMC Minutes
21:30	USD API Weekly Crude Oil Stock			3.94M
23:50	JPY Foreign bond investment			¥-973.2B
23:50	JPY Foreign investment in Japan stocks			¥-429.5B
Thursday, Feb 22
00:30	AUD New Motor Vehicle Sales (YoY)			6.7%
00:30	AUD New Motor Vehicle Sales (MoM)			4.5%
00:30	AUD Private Capital Expenditure			1%
01:15	USD FOMC Member Kashkari Speech
05:15	USD Fed's Quarles speech
07:00	EUR Producer Price Index (YoY)			3%
07:00	EUR Export Prices (YoY)			3.5%
07:00	EUR Import Prices (YoY)			6%
07:45	EUR Consumer Price Index (EU norm) (MoM)		-0.1%	0.4%
07:45	EUR Inflation ex-tobacco (MoM)			0.3%
07:45	EUR Business Climate		113	113
08:30	HKD Unemployment rate			2.9%
08:30	HKD Consumer Price Index			1.7%
09:00	EUR IFO - Current Assessment		127.2	127.7
09:00	EUR IFO - Business Climate		117.0	117.6
09:00	EUR IFO - Expectations		108.0	108.4
09:00	EUR Industrial Sales s.a. (MoM)			1.3%
09:00	EUR Industrial Sales n.s.a. (YoY)			5.1%
09:00	EUR Industrial Orders s.a (MoM)			0.3%
09:00	EUR Industrial Orders n.s.a (YoY)			8.9%
09:00	ISK Consumer Price Index (MoM)			-0.1%
09:00	ISK Consumer Price Index (YoY)			2.4%
09:30	GBP Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)		0.5%	0.5%
09:30	GBP Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		1.5%	1.5%
09:30	GBP Total Business Investment (YoY)			1.7%
09:30	GBP Total Business Investment (QoQ)		0.5%	0.5%
09:30	GBP Index of Services (3M/3M)			0.4%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (MoM)			0.2%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (EU Norm) (MoM)		-1.6%	-1.6%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (EU Norm) (YoY)		1.1%	1.1%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)			0.8%
n/a	EUR 10-y Bond Auction			0.98%
11:00	BRL Mid-month Inflation			0.39%
11:00	GBP CBI Distributive Trades Survey - Realized (MoM)			12%
12:30	EUR ECB Monetary Policy Meeting Accounts
13:00	PLN M3 Money Supply (YoY)			4.6%
13:00	RUB Central Bank Reserves $			$447.4B
13:30	USD Continuing Jobless Claims		1.933M	1.942M
13:30	USD Initial Jobless Claims		230K	230K
13:30	CAD Retail Sales ex Autos (MoM)		0.3%	1.6%
13:30	CAD Retail Sales (MoM)		0.3%	0.2%
14:00	MXN 1st half-month Inflation			0.24%
14:00	MXN 1st half-month Core Inflation			0.17%
14:00	EUR Leading Indicator
15:00	USD Fed's William Dudley speech
15:30	USD EIA Natural Gas Storage change			-194B
15:30	USD EIA Crude Oil Stocks change			1.841M
16:00	USD Kansas Fed manufacturing activity			16
17:10	USD FOMC Member Bostic speech
n/a	USD 7-Year Note Auction			2.565%
21:45	NZD Retail Sales ex Autos (QoQ)			0.5%
21:45	NZD Retail Sales (QoQ)			0.2%
23:30	JPY National Consumer Price Index (YoY)			1%
23:30	JPY National CPI Ex-Fresh Food (YoY)		0.8%	0.9%
23:50	JPY Corporate Service Price (YoY)			0.8%
Friday, Feb 23
24h	EUR European Council meeting
24h	RUB Defence of the Motherland
05:00	SGD Consumer Price Index (YoY)			0.6
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product w.d.a (YoY)			2.9%
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)		0.6%	0.6%
07:00	EUR Gross Domestic Product (YoY)		2.3%	2.3%
07:00	DKK Retail Sales (YoY)			1.1%
07:15	CHF Employment Level (QoQ)			4.956M
08:00	EUR Industrial Production (YoY)			3.4%
09:00	PLN Unemployment (MoM)			6.6%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index - Core (YoY)		1%	1%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (MoM)		-0.9%	0.4%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)		1.3%	1.3%
10:00	EUR Consumer Price Index - Core (MoM)		-1.5%	0.5%
11:00	BRL Unemployment Rate			11.8%
11:30	TRY Manufacturing Confidence			108.3
11:30	TRY Capacity Utilization			78.2%
11:30	INR FX Reserves, USD			$419.76B
13:30	CAD Consumer Price Index (YoY)		1.4%	1.9%
13:30	CAD Bank of Canada Consumer Price Index Core (YoY)			1.2%
13:30	CAD Bank of Canada Consumer Price Index Core (MoM)			-0.5%
13:30	CAD Consumer Price Index (MoM)		0.4%	-0.4%
14:00	MXN Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)			-0.3%
14:00	MXN Gross Domestic Product (YoY)			1.5%
n/a	USD Fed Monetary Policy Report
15:00	MXN Accumulated Current Account/GDP			1.8%
15:00	MXN Current Account, $ (QoQ)			$-5.528M
15:15	USD Fed's William Dudley speech
18:00	USD Baker Hughes US Oil Rig Count			798
18:30	USD FOMC Member Mester speech
19:30	USD CFTC Gold NC net positions			$175.6K
19:30	USD CFTC Oil NC net positions			712.3K
19:30	USD CFTC USD NC net positions			$179K
19:30	GBP CFTC GBP NC net positions			£14.9K
19:30	JPY CFTC JPY NC net positions			¥-115.5K
19:30	EUR CFTC EUR NC net positions			€127.3K
19:30	AUD CFTC AUD NC net positions			$9.1K
21:00	KRW Consumer Sentiment Index			109.9
Saturday, Feb 24
01:30	CNY House Price Index			5.3%

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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