Forex Today: Kiwi drops further on RBNZ’s status quo, EU Summit – Key

Forex Today was a mixed bag in the Asian trading this Thursday, markets remained unnerved on the back of confusing signals by the US on the trade war while stalled sell-off in the Yuan also helped cool-off the risk-off sentiment.

The Asian equities pared losses, with a recovery in the Nikkei 225 index driving USD/JPY to daily highs near 110.35 levels while the Aussie consolidates the gains near mid-0.73s. The Kiwi was unperturbed by a recovery in risk appetite, as the RBNZ’s status-quo underscored the monetary policy divergence and dragged the rates further to 25-month lows.

Both crude benchmarks stalled the upsurge and took a breather before the next move higher while gold prices continued to flirt with six-month lows of $ 1252.30.

Main topics in Asia

Germany's Seehofer: party isn't seeking to break Germany's coalition

Germany's Interior Minister Horst Seehofer is hitting wires with comments meant to cool off concerns that divisions within Germany's ruling coalition are continuing to widen.

Aussie FinMin: gov't to defer corporate tax cut decision until after winter break

Australian Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is hitting wires stating that the Australian government is deferring a plan to vote on corporate tax cuts until after the parliament returns from their winter break.

Asian stocks continue a mild retreat as the US can't decide what it plans to do

Equities in the Asian session are continuing the week's steady decline as trade concerns continue to eat away at traders' confidence, keeping indexes in the Pacific-Asia session under pressure.

Trump vows US will finish 'trade war' it didn't start - Livesquawk

Livesquawk reports the latest comments delivered by the US President Trump, as he vows that the US will ‘finish’ the trade war it didn’t start.

China’s Commerce Ministry: Will carefully monitor US policies on inbound investments

China’s Commerce Ministry is out with the latest statement, via Reuters, citing that China will carefully monitor the US policies on inbound investments.

USD/CNY pulls back from 7-month highs

The USD/CNY pair rose to 6.6247 today - the highest level since November 22 and was last seen trading at 6.6134.

Reserve Bank of New Zealand to make monetary policy announcements on Wednesday in 2019

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) is out with a statement, announcing a shift in the timing of the monetary policy decisions from 2019.

China's state planner considers ban on firms issuing 1 year USD denominated debt

The reports are doing the rounds that China is considering a ban on firms issuing a one year US dollar denominated debt on grounds that companies' overseas debt is too large. 

Indian Rupee hit record low of 69.09 per US dollar

The Indian Rupee (INR) fell to record low of $69.09 on Thursday, possibly due to a sharp decline the Chinese Yuan- a regional anchor and due to rising oil prices. 

 Key Focus ahead

Markets have a plenty of second-tier macro news to look forward ahead of the key German Prelim CPI figures due on the cards around 1200 GMT. From the Euroland, a string of confidence and sentiment numbers will be reported all at once at 0900 GMT.

The focus for today remains the EU Summit, where the European leaders meet about a range of global economic issues, including migration, security, defense, and the economy, in Brussels. The main topic of discussion on agenda is likely to be the migrant policy, which will have a major impact on the bloc’s political stability, especially concerning the German political climate, with Merkel in disagreement with her coalition.

In the NA session, the US Final Q1 GDP report will be published at 1230 GMT alongside the weekly jobless claims. The annualized figures for the first quarter US final GDP are expected to confirm the flash readout of 2.2%.

Besides, the speeches by the BOE Chief Economist Haldane, FOMC members Bullard and Bostic are scheduled at 1330 GMT, 1445 GMT and 1600 GMT respectively.

EUR/USD has eroded key long-term rising trendline ahead of EU summit

The EUR/USD fell below the long-term ascending trendline (drawn from the March 2015 low and April 2017 low), possibly due to political instability in Germany. The European leaders are scheduled to meet in Brussels today to resolve their differences over the bloc’s three-year migrant crisis.

GBP/USD falling into 1.31 with US GDP figures in the barrel for Thursday

Thursday is a decidedly quiet showing for the Pound, with the only notable scheduled event being a speech from the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee member Andy Haldane at 13:30 GMT, who will be giving a speech on productivity growth at the Academy of Social Sciences Annual Lecture in London.

China factory growth seen cooling slightly in June, trade war a worry - Reuters poll

According to the median forecast of 25 economists in a Reuters poll, the Chinese manufacturing sector activity appears to have eased a bit in the month of June when compared to May’s unexpected rebound.

A summer roadmap for the dollar - TDS

Analysts at TD Securities argued that the market sits yet again at another inflection point.