Australian Dollar

As said, employment reports are not easy to trade.

A fairly staid finish to the trading week here in Asia with a truncated session for mainland Chinese and Japanese markets equating to a bit of catch up and not much else, with the former retracing significantly.

Wall Street zoomed higher on sentiment yet again, with the Dow Jones putting in a record high while European markets were more modest in their rises as the Bank of England kept its composure and interest rates steady, indicating some tapering ahead.

The return of mainland Chinese and Japanese markets has resulted in a mix mood across Asia with the ASX200 hit on local COVID problem and macro Chinese problems while a somewhat bullish catchup was played out elsewhere.

BNY Mellon with the note, catching on with my own views: The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decision this week suggests the central bank remains in a holding pattern.

JPM was last onto this boat but it’s making up for lost time with a new note: Inflation hedging was a big theme in 2010.

Better economic data from the US coupled with better earnings saw yet another reversal in sentiment on Wall Street overnight but it was shortlived as tech stocks moved lower yet again.

Asian stock markets are still relatively quiet and despite the drubbing on tech stocks overnight on Wall Street and the still closed mainland Chinese and Japanese markets, the ASX200 was able to put in a very solid session.

The excellent chaps at Nordea with the note: In our sister product, the week ahead, we mulled, if we are not experiencing something akin to a crack-up boom as the Austrian’s (Mises, Rothbard, …) describe it.

Tech stocks were crunched on Wall Street overnight despite the lack of catalysts, although Treasury Secretary, former Fed boss did spook some by suggesting the Fed needs to raise rates soon.

All major forex prognosticators produce Australian dollar fair value models.

With mainland Chinese and Japanese markets closed again, there wasn’t much going on here in Asia even as the RBA board of doves met again and did precisely nothing, leaving the Aussie dollar essentially unchanged.

But were afraid to ask.

A dovish mood from Fed officials overnight sent the USD into reversal mode and helped buoy Wall Street after a disappointing ISM manufacturing print, giving Asian stocks a catalyst to rebound from the poor start to the trading week yesterday.

Not a lot of action across risk markets here in Asia with mainland Chinese and Japanese markets closed for at least the first half of the week.

Wall Street took another hit on Friday night, unable to translate record highs into yet more record highs as inflationary pressures continue to mount in the US economy.

Credit Suisse with the note.

A sea of red across stock markets here in Asia in response to a much lower than expected Chinese manufacturing PMI, coupled with some large trading holidays for Japanese and Chinese markets has left a lot of risk off the table.

The Australian dollar sold off again overnight, now putting in a two week long triple top pattern as it continues to rebuff the 78 cent level versus USD.

Wall Street regained ground last night, with the S&P 500 finishing at record closing levels as better-than-expected weekly jobless claims and upbeat GDP figures reinforced the Fed’s accomodative view. A slew of post-close earnings from tech giants may upset the Apple (sic) cart to finish out the week later tonight though.

Green across the board for stock markets across Asia following last nights FOMC meeting but its all about earnings and record commodity prices as risk sentiment continues to bubble over.

Last night’s Federal Reserve FOMC meeting put a rocket back under the Australian dollar completely wiping out the pullback on the ABS CPI print yesterday that undershot inflation expectations.