ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Gold continues its slide

• US drafting sanctions threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from global financial system
• Goldman Sachs revised forecasts for USD/JPY
• FX option expiries for 23 April 10am New York cut
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda: Wage talks not the only determinant of monetary policy
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda on what inflation needs to do for a BOJ rate hike
• Japan finance minister says groundwork laid to take appropriate FX action
• Japan finance minister Suzuki says the weak yen has pros and cons for the economy
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 7. 1059 (vs. estimate at 7.2437)
• Japan finance minister Suzuki won’t comment on current FX moves
• Japan April preliminary PMI Manufacturing 49.9 (prior 48.2) Services 54.6 (prior 54.1)
• China Securities Journal says there is still a chance the PBoC will cut the MLF rate
• USD/JPY barely under 155, rate differential fundamental support – any MoF intervention?
• Australian Consumer Confidence weekly survey falls to its lowest this year (so far)
• The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is being urged to include cryptocurrency in their reserves
• Australia April preliminary PMI Manufacturing 49.9 (prior 47.3) Services 54.2 (prior 54.4)
• JP Morgan’s Kolanovic says the slide in US stocks is not over
• A high hurdle for the Fed to sound dovish (make a potential December rate cut great again)
• Goldman Sachs cut its EUR/USD forecasts (by not very much)
• Vanguard’s base scenario is a “deferred landing” for US economy, less aggressive Fed cuts
• BlackRock’s Rieder sees Federal Reserve being able to lower interest rates twice this year
• Blackrock forecasts European Central Bank rate cuts before the Federal Reserve
• ICYMI: UBS downgraded Magnificent 6 tech stocks (6 = 7 minus Tesla) to Neutral
• Oil snippets: 1 Barclays sees upside risk, 2 Venezuala to shift sales to digital currency
• Trade ideas thread – Tuesday, 23 April, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: US dollar gives back gains as risk mood improves

After
gold’s huge fall on Monday, the move carried on further during Asia
time. Gold dropped under US$2,300 and is not a lot above there as I
update. There was no fresh news to act as a catalyst.

Data
flow was light (preliminary PMIs from Australia and Japan), and news
flow was also.

We
had comments from Japan’s finance minister Suzuki, most notably
saying that last week’s discussions in Washington laid the groundwork
for Japan to take appropriate FX action. USD/JPY hasn’t shown much
response, its barely off its highs of the session in a tight range.

Bank
of Japan Governor Ueda spoke also, he didn’t add to what we already
know of the BOJ considerations for their next policy move (in a nutshell, Ueda reiterated the BOJ’s intention to raise its benchmark interest rate if underlying inflation rises toward the 2% target).

The
USD lost a little ground. AUD, NZD, EUR, GBP are all slightly higher
but there isn’t much in it.

The
Wall Street Journal reported that the US is drafting sanctions that
threaten to cut some Chinese banks off from the global financial system
due to bank’s aiding in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Mainland
Chinese stocks are lower on the session while Hong Kong is slightly
higher.

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