Australian Dollar

Asian share markets are doing quite well in the final but relatively quiet session of the trading week with the USD falling overnight on the bad but good initial jobless claims showing a soft US labour market helping supporting the risk taking.

A wobbly night on Wall Street due to Oracles earnings but also a “normalised” US initial jobless claims print proving the labour market is soft as the Fed claimed in its rate cut the previous session.

Wall Street loved the rate cut from the Fed last night and the apparently neutral not hawkish future position espoused by Fed Chair Powell.

The latest Chinese inflation numbers were slightly higher than expected which has seen the potential for a BOC RRR cut next year move lower, also pushing mainland shares down as well.

The Pacific Peso is on fire even before the RBA’s “hawkish hold” at yesterday’s meeting, keeping in on its short term trend that has seen it breach and hold the 66 cent level against USD.

Wall Street remained in a hold pattern overnight as everyone awaits the FOMC meeting with a selloff in Treasuries keeping USD somewhat supported, particularly against Yen while European shares also went nowhere.

All eyes on the RBA in its last meeting of the year today with a hawkish hold the expected outcome which gave the Aussie dollar a small boost but stocks didn’t like the result.

It’s decision day at Martin Place as the Reserve Bank of Australia meets to pull or not to pull – that is the question – the interest rate level.

Overnight action on stock markets was muted given the selloff in bonds across most sovereign markets with Treasuries falling back following hawkish comments from all sides on inflationary pressures.

The latest Japanese GDP figures were the biggest catalyst here in Asia while a boost in tech stocks is seeing Chinese shares lift higher in afternoon trade.

Friday night saw modest gains across both sides of the Atlantic as Wall Street awaits this week’s FOMC meeting and the long expected rate cut from the Fed.

Wall Street had another slow session overnight with an unclear picture of the US labour market weighing on high expectations that the Fed will cut in next week’s FOMC meeting.

Risk markets here in Asia are pivoting more on BOJ rate hike speculation amid near certainty that the Fed’s upcoming December meeting next week will result in a cut, with tonight’s US initial jobless print in the balance given the very poor ADP private numbers recently.

A slowing or deep diving US labour market (not that we would know given the lack of NFP prints) saw a lot more weakness in USD overnight as markets anticipate a full rate cut by the Fed in next week’s meeting.

DXY is down, down.

Some stability returned last night to risk markets with both Wall Street and European stocks making modest gains after scratch sessions across Asian markets yesterday.

DXY is fading away.

A little bit of volatility across some risk markets here in Asia but generally equities finished where they started with the weak overnight lead from Wall Street as traders anticipate the upcoming rate cut at the Fed’s December meeting.

The Bitcoin bust continues.

Overnight saw what could be the beginnings of a risk off mood as Wall Street was unable to get moving after the weekend, helped along by a dumping of crypto as Bitcoin made new lows.

Just when you think it’s safe to dip back into forex markets, the Japanese bond shock returns.

As a new trading month gets underway Asian equity markets are quite mixed across the region as Japanese inflation and Chinese manufacturing contraction concerns overshadow the potential invasion of Venezuela by the Trump regime.