ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Gold, BTC up

Gold
and Bitcoin remained bid during Asia time. Gold traded to highs above
US$2690 briefly while BTC/USD traded above US$99K.

The
data focus for the session was on Japanese inflation for October. All
three of the main measures are sitting above the Bank of Japan 2%
target, further fuelling expectations of a Bank of Japan rate hike at
its December 18-19 meeting.

Just
prior to posting the latest Reuters survey of economists showed 56%
expect a hike, so its not an overwhelming majority by any means.

USD/JPY
dropped lower after the data, to briefly under 154.00 (just barely).
The drop was helped along by Prime Minister Ishiba saying the latest
economic package would be around 39 trillion yen, about 253bn USD
equivalent.

A
little after USD/JPY had hits lows we got a reminder that the economy
remains shaky, with the November preliminary PMIs mixed:

  • Manufacturing
    49.0 (October was 49.4)
  • Services
    a little more encouraging at 50.2 (vs. October 49.7)
  • Composite
    49.8 (October 49.6)

NZD/USD
fell to 0.5830. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand meet next week with a
50bp rate cut fully priced in to the market. After the meeting next
week, November 27, the Bank does not meet again until February 19.
This is fuelling a 30% pricing of a 75bp rate cut next week. AUD/NZD
hit its highest today since October 2022, with a still-hawkish
Reserve Bank of Australia expected to be on hold until February (ANZ
and CBA tipping a cut then) or even May (NAB and Westpac tip a May
cut).

The
People’s Bank of China propped up the onshore yuan again today,
setting the USD/CNY reference rate circa 550 points lower than the model estimate.
The Bank also said it’d

  • prevent
    the formation of one-sided expectations on the yuan,
  • keep
    the yuan basically stable at a reasonable and balanced level.

Q3
Singapore GDP growth came in smashing estimates at 5.4% y/y vs. 4.6%
expected.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.

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