ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD/JPY back above 155.00

• Federal Reserve speakers on Wednesday include Collins, Cook, and Jefferson
• Chinese state media is reporting the PBOC is likely to cut its RRR in Q2 2024
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda will speak again later on Wednesday, during Europe time
• More from Ueda: Doesn’t see yen moves as having a big impact on trend inflation so far
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 7.1016 (vs. estimate at 7.2202)
• Yen falls deeper in the hole. FinMin Suzuki keeps on digging: “No comment on intervention”
• Goldman Sachs have downshifted their GBP forecasts
• PBOC is expected to set the USD/CNY reference rate at 7.2202 – Reuters estimate
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda says monetary policy does not seek to control forex rates
• Japan finance minister Suzuki says he is watching FX movement with a sense of urgency
• Oil price dip & the US is back on the bid to buy oil for Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)
• Former Dallas Fed President Kaplan is back! Gets the Goldman Sachs Vice Chairman gig.
• The RBA May meeting left the cash rate on hold: What’ll make the bank raise rates further
• RBA response from Commonwealth Bank of Australia – Interest rate cut coming in November
• RBA on hold in May – next move will be a rate cut
• Australian Tax Office targeting unreported crypto profits: 1.2m accounts investigation
• ICYMI – Druckenmiller cut his stake in Nvidia, says “AI might be a little overhyped now”
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 7 May: The USD is the strongest of the major currencies.
• Oil – private survey of inventory shows a headline crude oil build vs. draw expected
• Standard Chartered US$200K BTC forecast – says Bitcoin will surge if Trump wins election
• A mixed close for US stock indices today
• ICYMI – Morgan Stanley expect three Fed rate cuts this year! Starting in September.
• Trade ideas thread – Wednesday, 8 May, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

We
had plenty of comments crossing the news wires from both Japan’s
finance minister Suzuki and Bank of Japan Governor Ueda during the
Tokyo morning but neither of them managed to give much support to the
yen. The counter factual is that JPY would have fallen faster without
them, but here in the real world the currency slid again regardless. USD/JPY
rose to highs above 155.20.

The
yen wasn’t alone in dropping against the US dollar, though. EUR,
GBP, AUD, NZD and the hapless CAD are all lower against the big
dollar. There was no fresh news as a catalyst, nor data (the data
agenda was blank today), so just a continuation of the strength the
dollar showed on Tuesday.

Bank
of Japan Governor Ueda is scheduled to speak again today, at 0830
GMT.

USD/JPY update:

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.