ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Awaiting the UK election, NFP to follow on Friday

• Japan earthquake – M5.4, off Chiba prefecture
• Japan stocks – Topix index, and Nikkei have each hit a record high
• ECB speakers on Thursday, 4 July 2024 include Lane, McCaul and Cipollone
• Biden: “No one is pushing me out. I’m not leaving. I’m in this race to the end”
• Ether has dipped to its lowest since May 20
• Australian May trade balance: Surplus of AUD 5.773bn (vs. 6.678bn expected)
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1305 (vs. estimate at 7.2656)
• Wall Street Journal: The Underground Network Sneaking Nvidia Chips Into China
• Biden met with Democrat state governors – Biden determined to beat Trump at ballot box
• CAD to remain under pressure – “not a lot working for Canada right now”
• Trump says Biden is quitting the race, “that means we have Kamala.”
• Standard Chartered says Bitcoin could hit US$100,000 by US election day
• Reminder: US markets will be closed Thursday, 4 July 2024 for the 4th of July celebrations
• Fed’s Goolsbee says getting inflation back to 2% will take time
• Kamala Harris memecoin KAMA has rocketed higher
• J.​P. Morgan bullish Stablecoins – see the market ‘growing again’
• New Zealand’s YTD budget deficit has come in NZD 1 bn lower than expected
• Ongoing Washington machinations – Biden and Harris to meet with Democrat Governors.
• Here’s a forecast for the S&P 500 to fall to 3750 in early 2025
• Goldman Sachs assess the UK economic outlook under the incoming Labour government
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 3 Jul: USD moves lower helped by weaker ISM data
• Trade ideas thread – Thursday, 4 July, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

The
Independence Day holiday ahead for the US, where markets will be
closed, sapped a lot of interest from the timezone here today.
Japanese stocks, nevertheless, rose. The TOPIX index hit its highest
ever, climbing above highs last seen in December 1989.

Across
major FX there was little movement. USD/JPY dripped under 161.30 but
has come back to be around 161.45 or so.

From
the Fed, Chicago branch President Goolsbee spoke with the BBC.
Goolsbee expressed concern about the pace at which the labour market
in the US was slowing. Has he got an inkling of a poor employment
report coming up on Friday? We’ll see.

BTC
and ETH lost more ground. There were no obvious fresh catalysts.

In
political news US President Biden met with state Democratic
Governors. The official readout from the meeting is he has their
support to continue. We’ll see on that too. A US media outlet,
meanwhile, posted a covertly recorded video (which I assume was not a
fake, but who knows?) where Trump said, of the debate:

• “He
  just quit, you know—he’s quitting the race.”
• “I
  got him out … and that means we have Kamala.”

Ahh politics … is it November yet?

Happy
UK election, and Happy US Independence Day, to those celebrating.

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