Australian Dollar

A flat start to the week in currencyland but stocks are poised to build on their recovery gains from last week, even in the absence of trading in China due to the NY celebrations and Wall Street tonight due to President’s Day.

By Chris Becker  The recovery continues, particularly on US stocks as 2018 brings forth more volatility and hence more opportunity.

Deutsche has a good summary of US dollar weakness: Blame the dollar on yields We are well into 2018 and our feedback from recently attending the TradeTech FX conference in Miami is that the market is still struggling to understand or embrace dollar weakness.

A mixed end to the week here in Asia with Japanese stocks catching up to the rebound, Chinese bourses closed for NY celebrations and the ASX200 lagging as industrials and media stocks selloff going into the weekend.

By Chris Becker As US Treasury yields march onward to the 3% level, risk markets are heading back to their jubilant highs with US stocks rallying strongly as European bourses put in much smaller gains.

DXY cratered to new lows last night: But the AUD fell as well against everything: Including EMs: All it took was one thinning jobs report.

Its all systems go in risk markets here in Asia today as the solid night on Wall Street translated into outsized gains for stocks.

By Chris Becker A slew of very positive economic data overnight with the US CPI overshooting, EZ wide GDP was strong, German growth was stronger, as was industrial production.

Live webinar with Q&A today at 12.30pm with David Llewellyn-Smith and Damien Klassen.

Via Westpac: Since we released our February Market Outlook there has been a significant change in US fiscal policy. Congress has supported a $300 billion (1.5% of GDP) spending package over the 18 months from April 2018.

Another mixed day across Asia with only Chinese stocks rallying as the more correlated risk markets prepare for some serious economic releases.

By Chris Becker After a poor lead from Europe, US stocks looked like returning to their corrective phase overnight before a late surge saw minor advances as the USD continued to fall against the majors.

A slightly better day here in Asia on stock markets, although Japanese bourses are spoiling the party as the Yen continues to appreciate.

By Chris Becker Everything is awesome as US stocks continued their Friday rebound rally last night, dragging European markets along for the ride.

So we start the week here in Asia tentatively with some positive news coming out of Korea viz the Olympics and potential US talks with North Korea.

By Chris Becker  2018 is getting interesting as we head into the second and possibly third week of a major correction of heavily correlated risk markets.

The Australian dollar firmed Friday night as risk jumped back into stocks: Net speculative positioning rose slightly on the week to 13.7k contracts: However, there are good reasons to think that the big AUD top is past in the mid-81s.

Another interesting day here in Asia with Chinese stocks smacked down even though the latest CPI print came in bang on target, the risk off night in Wall Street has spooked markets across the region today.

By Chris Becker Can you smell that?

A less volatile session today here in Asia with most markets advancing, although the action was centered in China with the yuan falling on the back of poor trade data, taking mainland stocks with it.

Who knows where the BTC dead cat bounce will peak?

By Chris Becker A mixed reaction overnight to the subdued rebound in stocks in Asia yesterday with European bourses putting on strong gains, taking back their previous session losses.