Forex Today: USD regains poise in Asia, a busy EUR calendar ahead

Dhwani Mehta FXStreet

Resurgent USD demand was the main theme in Asia this Friday, as cautiousness crept back into markets amid the latest IAEA warning over North Korea’s nuclear developments. Despite mild risk-aversion, as reflected by mixed Asian equities and negative oil prices, the safe-havens such as the Yen and gold remained on the back foot. The Japanese currency also shrugged-off mixed data dump out of Japan, as the BOJ’s summary of opinions weighed down on the sentiment. Meanwhile, the Antipodeans incurred losses, having ignored better macro news.

Main topics in Asia

RBNZ 2017 Annual Report: NZ economy and financial system sound

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) published its 2017 Annual Report in the overnight trades, citing that the NZ economy and financial system remain sound.

NZ building consents up 10% in Aug - Westpac

New Zealand’s residential building consents jumped by 10% in August and the increase was driven entirely by consents for multiples (apartments, townhouses etc) which had their single biggest month in 13 years, explains Michael Gordon, Research Analyst at Westpac.

BOJ Summary of Opinions: Chance of inflation hitting 2% target next year is low

The Bank of Japan (BOJ) Summar of Opinions at the monetary policy meeting on September 20/21 shows the policy makers believe the odds of inflation hitting the 2% target next year are low.

IAEA: North Korea has made rapid progress on nuke development

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations (UN) nuclear watchdog, came out with a warning on Friday over the North Korean nuke tests.

South Korea bans all forms of initial coin offering in the country - RTRS

Reuters out with the latest update on the cryptocurrencies, citing that South Korea bans all forms of initial coin offering in the country, following China’s footsteps.

Key Focus ahead

On the final trading day, we have a busy economic calendar, with the traders awaiting the German retail sales data ahead of the European opening bells. In the European session, markets eagerly look forward to the UK current account and final GDP revision amid a string of second-liner macro news from the UK docket, while the German unemployment change and Eurozone flash CPI could provide fresh insights on the ECB monetary policy stance going forward.

For the NA traders, the Canadian GDP and RMPI data will kick-off an eventful session, following by the US dataflow, including the core PCE price index, personal spending, Chicago PMI and consumer sentiment. Amongst central bankers’ speeches, BOE Governor Carney’s will hog the limelight, while BOE MPC member Broadbent and FOMC member Harker are also scheduled speak in the NA session today.

GBP/USD: A busy session ahead, 1.3300 still on sight?

The GBP/USD pair resumed its recent bearish momentum in the Asian session, after a temporary reversal seen yesterday, as investors remain nervous ahead of a slew of key macro news from both the UK and US.

EUR/USD - Focus on inflation differential & the impact on bond yield spread

EUR/USD regained poised on Thursday as the USD rally stalled despite the upward revision of the US Q2 GDP. The currency pair closed at 1.1786 and traded flat lined around 1.780 levels in Asia.

EUR/GBP poised for potential breakdown amid key data

The end of this week brings a few more key data points that could result in a further significant impact on the EUR/GBP currency pair. Friday brings current account and trade data from the UK…

RBA to keep rates on-hold next Tuesday – Reuters Poll

Results of the latest Reuters poll showed that almost all the economists polled believe the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will keep interest rates on-hold, when it meets next week.

Key Events AHead:

GMT	Event	Consensus	Previous
Friday, Sep 29
05:00	JPY Annualized Housing Starts	0.968M	0.974M
05:00	JPY Housing Starts (YoY)	0.9%	-2.3%
05:00	JPY Construction Orders (YoY)		14.9%
06:00	GBP Nationwide Housing Prices n.s.a (YoY)	1.9%	2.1%
06:00	GBP Nationwide Housing Prices s.a (MoM)	0.1%	-0.1%
08:30	GBP Net Lending to Individuals (MoM)	£5.0B	£4.8B
08:30	GBP Gross Domestic Product (YoY)	1.7%	1.7%
08:30	GBP Gross Domestic Product (QoQ)	0.3%	0.3%
08:30	GBP Total Business Investment (QoQ)	0%	0%
08:30	GBP Total Business Investment (YoY)	0%	0%
08:30	GBP Consumer Credit	£1.350B	£1.179B
08:30	GBP Mortgage Approvals	68.000K	68.689K
08:30	GBP Index of Services (3M/3M)	0.7%	0.5%
08:30	GBP M4 Money Supply (MoM)	0.2%	0.5%
08:30	GBP M4 Money Supply (YoY)		4.4%
08:30	GBP Current Account	£-16.00B	£-16.89B
09:00	EUR Consumer Price Index (YoY)	1.6%	1.5%
09:00	EUR Consumer Price Index - Core (YoY)	1.2%	1.3%
12:00	GBP MPC Member Cunliffe Speech
12:30	USD Personal Spending	0.1%	0.3%
12:30	USD Core Personal Consumption Expenditure - Price Index (YoY)	1.4%	1.4%
12:30	USD Personal Consumption Expenditures - Price Index (MoM)	0.3%	0.1%
12:30	USD Personal Income (MoM)	0.2%	0.4%
12:30	USD Personal Consumption Expenditures - Price Index (YoY)	1.5%	1.4%
12:30	USD Core Personal Consumption Expenditure - Price Index (MoM)	0.2%	0.1%

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.

AUD/USD: Next on the upside is 0.7000

AUD/USD leaves behind Monday’s downtick and trades with marked gains, approaching the critical 0.7000 yardstick ahead of the opening bell in Asia on Wednesday. The pair’s solid performance follows the Greenback’s fresh downward trend amid cooling geopolitical tensions and caution ahead of the US CPI data.

USD/JPY extends retreat below 158.50 as intervention risks loom

USD/JPY is dropping below 158.50 in the Asian session on Tuesday, snapping a two-day winning streak and pulling back from an over two-week top touched the previous day, despite Japan's soft PPI inflation print. Bulls turn cautious amid speculation that authorities will step in to prop up the Japanese Yen, which, in turn, weighs on the pair.

Gold: Bears struggle to breach below $4,150

Gold now gives away its initial gains and resumes its decline, revisiting the $4,160 region per troy ounce on Tuesday. The precious metal’s pullback comes despite the fresh downward trend in the Greenback in combination with a mixed performance of US Treasury yields across the board and easing tensions on the geopolitical front.

HYPE falls to $80 as ETF outflows and flat volume weigh on Hyperliquid

Hyperliquid (HYPE) declines 4% on Tuesday, briefly touching $80 as perpetual volumes stay flat and institutional interest decreases. Perpetual volume on the platform saw a modest increase last week from $41.5 billion to $42.5 billion. The metric matters because 99% of fees Hyperliquid captures from trading volume flow toward token buybacks.

S&P 500 earnings just hit a record. The AI data centre bill hasn't landed yet

S&P 500 companies are on track for a third straight quarter of earnings growth above 25%, according to FactSet. Their profit margin hit 17% in the April-June quarter, the highest in FactSet data going back to 2009. The cash behind those earnings has been shrinking for two years, and almost all of the shrinkage is in the handful of companies building data centres for artificial intelligence (AI).

Has Bitcoin really escaped the macro forces it was built to fight?

Over 17 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin (BTC) on the back of a global financial crisis as an alternative to the global monetary system outside the control of central banks, governments and traditional intermediaries. This raises a key question: has Bitcoin really become independent of the macroeconomic forces it was built to challenge?