Forex news for Asia trading Monday 24 July 2017

Weekend:

ICYMI:

Some minor movement in currencies has left rates little changed for the beginning of the week. The USD slid a few points (not quite across the board) as the Tokyo morning gathered pace but soon reversed to come back - to a near 13-month low..

EUR/USD popped to circa 1.1684 and prompted a little perspiration but soon turned itself back, drifting to around 1.1665 and its just above there again as I update. Yes, a small range only but knocking on recent highs.

USD/CHF has edged a few points to the better on the session while GBP/USD has ticked off a small gain to be above 1.3010 as i update.

USD/JPY dipped under 110.80 briefly and edged back to around 111.00. The BOJ purchased JGBs today in a reduced amount compared with its previous operation (5 to 10 yrs at 470bn yen purchased, down 30bn yen) - reported once again as 'tapering' by some, but amounts purchased are now less important, the BOPJ targeting YCC thus making amounts an "endogenous variable" (check this out for an explanation of what this is)

Some slight AUD/NZD buying has seen AUD up a few points (against the USD) while NZD a few to the worse (against the USD). News and data flow of AUD and NZD was near non-existent, as it was for pretty much everything.

Regional equities:

  • Nikkei -0.81%
  • Shanghai +0.18%
  • HK +0.40% ... the Hang Seng looks on track for its strongest close in 2 years today.
  • ASX -0.92%

Today looks like to have seen largest-ever venture fundraising in Southeast Asia:

  • Grab raised $2 billion from Didi Chuxing and Softbank
  • Ups efforts to fend off Uber