Forexlive Asia-pacific FX news wrap 28 Aug. ANZ Business outlook soars & sends NZD higher

• Apple orders over 10% more iPhones versus last year
• PBOC sets USDCNY midpoint at 7.1299 versus expectations of 7.1297
• Australia capital expenditures for Q2 -2.2% versus 1.0% expected
• ANZ business outlook for August 50.6 versus 27.1 last month. 10 year high.
• Can gold sellers gather some traction?
• Nvidia remains lower by around 7% (as do the other Mag 7)
• Fed’s Bostick: On inflation, there is still distant to go
• Nvidia Jensen Huang can not lift Nvidia in after hours trading
• Kickstart the FX trading day for Aug 29 w/a technical look at EURUSD, USDJPY & GBPUSD
• Nvidia EPS $0.68 vs $0.64 estimate. Rev $30.04B dollars vs $28.5 billion estimate
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US dollar firms ahead of Nvidia earnings
• Major US stock indices close lower ahead of Nvidia earnings
• What’s Ahead? Fed’s Bostic, ANZ business confidence & some key earnings ahead (i.e.Nvidia)

The earnings from Nvidia came in better than expected as did the revenues and even the guidance but investors side not the delay in the Blackwell and perhaps hopes for more, took the stock down in after-hour trading (the stock was trading near $117-118 in after hours trading after closing at $125.61). That has Asian shares stepping lower with the Japan Nikkei down -0.39%, China’s Shanghai Composite down -0.60%, Hang Seng index down -0.76%, and the S&P/ASX200 index down -0.39%.

What did not help in Australia is the Capital expenditure data for Q2 which came in much weaker than expected at -2.2% vs +1.0%. That was not a good number and helped to push the AUDUSD back down after once again trying to extend above resistance at 0.6800. The current price is trading at 0.6890.

In contrast, the New Zealand ANZ business outlook index for August made traders take a double-take as it increased to 50.6 vs 27.1 last month. That was good enough for the highest level in 10 years. Moreover, the Own Activity index was equally impressive with a gain of 37.1 vs 16.3 last month. That was it’s highest reading in 7 years.

The data helped to propel the NZD sharply higher vs all the major currency pairs with gains of 0.44% (vs the CHF) to 0.59% (vs the USD).

The NZD is by far the strongest of the currencies to start the trading day. The USD and JPY are tied for the weakest of the majors (although the greenback had relatively modest declines vs the major currencies sans the NZD or -0.1% to -0.11% in the snapshot view.

Atlanta Fed’s Bostic did speak today (he spoke last on Friday). He commented on the current economic conditions, stating that there is still a considerable distance to go in addressing inflation. He noted that the labor market remains strong by historical standards. Bostic emphasized the importance of not waiting until inflation reaches 2% before moving away from the restrictive monetary stance. While inflation has decreased faster than anticipated and unemployment has risen more than expected, he suggested pulling forward a rate cut to the third quarter. However, he cautioned against cutting rates prematurely, only to raise them again, and stressed the need to wait for more data before making any decisions on rate cuts..

US yields are little changed. Gold tried to stay below hourly MA resistance near $2507, but the sellers could not gain any downside traction, and the price moved above those MAs on the USD selling.

Bitcoin is trading marginally higher (about $137) at $59,170.

This article was written by Greg Michalowski at www.forexlive.com.