ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Gold hits a new record high

• Federal Reserve speakers on Monday include Bostic, Goolsbee and Kashlkari
• Australian authorities legal action on pricing strategies that drove up consumer prices
• Shell to shut production at two oil facilities in Gulf of Mexico
• European Central Bank speakers Monday include Elderson and Cipollone
• UK Chancellor Reeves will be speaking on Monday at Labour Party conference
• People’s Bank of China rate cut. 14 day reverse repo cut to 1.85% from 1.95%
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.0531 (vs. estimate at 7.0518)
• Australian (populist swill) politicians are now actively moving to remove RBA independence
• Vice President Harris pumping crypto – says will encourage digital assets
• UBS with 2 big reasons it expects stocks to keep performing strongly
• Australia preliminary Sept PMI: Manufacturing 46.7 (prior 48.5) Services 50.6 (prior 52.5)
• New Zealand data, August trade balance -2200m (prior -963m)
• Nomura look for further GBP gains after BoE left Bank rate unchanged
• UK’s new Chancellor says won’t return to the austerity cuts of Conservative predecessors
• Japan’s new ‘top currency diplomat’ Atsushi Mimura said “always watching” yen carry trade
• Japanese markets are closed today, Monday, September 23, 2024, for a holiday
• US House announce a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through December 20
• TSMC and Samsung considering $100bn UAE investment – chip-building plants
• German state election – exit polls show Chancellor Scholz’s party beats far-right
• Trade ideas thread – Monday, 23 September, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
• US Vice Pres Harris to release new economic policy this week – urges Trump to debate again
• Monday morning open levels – indicative forex prices – 23 September 2024
• Newsquawk Week Ahead: Highlights include US PCE, Global PMIs, RBA, SNB, and Australian CPI
• Weekly Market Outlook (23-27 September)

Gold
carried on rising during the session. The background to its uptrend
includes factors such as interest rates falling and central bank
buying. The price rose to another record high, above US$2630.

On
the FX front AUD/USD rose also, approaching highs last seen late
year.

USD/JPY
ticked higher, towards 144.50. It was a Japanese market holiday
today.

News
flow was light, with some politics:

• exit
  polls show German leader Scholz’s centre-left Social Democratic Party
  (SPD) won Sunday’s regional election in stronghold Brandenburg by a
  very narrow margin
• US
  House Republicans have announced a stopgap funding bill through to
  December that’ll be voted on this week

Data
flow was light also, lower tier releases from New Zealand and
Australia.

The
People’s Bank of China cut 10bp from the 14-day reverse repo rate,
to 1.85%, down from 1.95%. Speculation had been insistent of a cut
from the PBoC, but this is a piecemeal effort only. The 7-day reverse
repo is now the main policy rate targeted by the Bank. This was left
unchanged. And, only on Friday the Bank left loan prime rates
unchanged. The 5-year LPR is the benchmark for mortgage rates which
remain high even as the property sector continues to implode.

Of interest to the oil people, Shell
is to shutter two oil facilities in the Gulf due to the threat of
cyclone.

Gold:

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