Australian Dollar

BTC was hammered last night over new fear of a hack at Binance: More importantly, it drove the price back to its recent support range in the high $6ks: Anyone with half a charting brain can see how important this support has become.

Asian stocks continue to buck around on higher volatility with most bourses putting on small gains, while the ASX fell to its lowest level in months.

The AUD is at new lows during the day: Bonds are bid: XJO is plumbing new lows: Dalian is flat: But Big Iron is copping it.

Via Bill Evans at Westpac: The Reserve Bank Board next meets on April 3.

By Chris Becker The poor showing in Asia did not translate into further falls in Europe, but the slump in Tesla stock and other techs pulled Wall Street down last night, slightly moving the risk edifice into correction territory.

The Australian dollar broke support last night and headed into the mid-76ers: The key up trend line is still about one cent lower.

Asian shares reliably reacted negatively to the late overnight activity after the new Trump threats to  China trade with a big impact on tech stocks.

By Chris Becker Trust the Trump White House to screw the pooch on this attempted recovery, with news that a potential crackdown on Chinese electronic goods sending the NASDAQ tumbling 3%, taking down industrial stocks with it.

The solid rebound on Wall Street last night translated into similar gains here in Asia, although a late selloff in China pared gains on the mainland.

Here’s the chart: The trigger was this: “Today’s news on Twitter’s ban is likely a significant contributor to the steep sell-off,” said Timothy Tam, co-founder of crypto-market intelligence platform CoinFi.

By Chris Becker The fluff and broth surrounding Trump’s trade war is simmering down, with news of moderation around China’s tariffs and other “deals” from the US Treasury sending stocks soaring on Wall Street overnight.

Not the Stormy session we were expecting here in Asia with most stock markets rebounding instead of following the very poor lead on Wall Street from Friday night.

By Chris Becker  Its beginning to look a lot like a crash.

The Aussie dollar is falling but some are asking why it’s not faster, from the AFR: Australian dollar shedding its risk proxy tag.

A bath of blood on Asian stock markets today in response to the impact of the US tariffs on Chinese goods.

By Chris Becker Trump has pushed risk markets into correction territory with his new round of Chinese tariffs, with US stocks slumping over 2% across the board in response.

From Bill Evans at Westpac: The US Federal Reserve has raised its growth forecasts for 2018 and 2019 just when it appears the RBA might be reconsidering its growth forecasts to the downside.

Reaction to the overnight rise in rates by the Federal Reserve has been mixed here in Asia with Chinese bourses slipping in the wake of the PBOC lifting interest rates too, while Japanese traders returned from a mid week holiday in a positive mood.

By Chris Becker US stocks didn’t like the tightening attitude at the “new” Fed, with an expected rate rise but not hawkish enough attitude slamming the US dollar and wavering resolve around the punch bowl drunk stock market.

A case of pre-positioning before the first Jerome Powell led FOMC Meeting later tonight with most currencies mean reverting, Japanese stocks closed for a holiday not giving the usual risk lead here in Asia to go on.

The Aussie dollar has tacked on a few points during the day: Bonds are off: XJO is modestly up: Dalian is fading as the day goes on: Big Iron is dead catting it anyway: Big Gas is tracking oil.

Via the excellent Damien Boey at Credit Suisse: The trade war distraction and USD liquidity Trade war … what is it good for?

By Chris Becker Stocks were able to recover somewhat last night after the Facebook inspired falls in tech stocks previously bought industrials down to start the week on a sour mood.

DXY took off last night: The Australian dollar took it for the team against DMs: And EMs: Gold may be breaking down: Oil took off as the Sauds and Trump plot against Iran.