ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD/JPY heads up to 147.20, drops back under 147.00

• Bank of England Deputy Governor Breeden speaking on Tuesday
• ECB speakers on Tuesday may be light on comments re the economy and monetary policy
• Japan will spend nearly a trillion yen to cover energy subsidies
• Australian data – Q2 net export contribution to GDP +0.2% (expected 0.6%)
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 7.1112 (vs. estimate at 7.1120)
• USD/JPY is back above 147.00
• US President Biden to speak on Tuesday at 2pm US Eastern time
• Bank of Korea sees inflation maintaining its current stable trend for the time being
• Australian weekly survey shows inflation expectations eased to the lowest since late 2021
• South Korea’s Vice Finance Minister says inflation expected to stabilise in lower 2% range
• UK data – British Retail Consortium (BRC) total sales in August, the strongest since March
• South Korea’s headline CPI in August has risen at its slowest y/y pace since March 2021
• ICYMI: China warns of severe economic retaliation against Japan re chipmaking curbs
• New Zealand data: Q2 2024 Terms of trade +2.1% q/q (expected +2.0%)
• Here’s a positive view on China – the worst is in the rear-view mirror
• ICYMI – A growing rift at the ECB
• UBS on all time highs in equity markets – “record highs aren’t the same as market peaks”
• Trade ideas thread – Tuesday, 3 September, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

USD/JPY
continued its swings again here today, with a move as high as 147.20
before dropping back to just under 146.60. Data flow was light, but
we did get news that Japan’s finance minister Suzuki announced
989bn yen in energy subsidies.

From
Australia we had Q2 current account data. This contained a ‘partial’
input to the Q2 GDP data due tomorrow (Wednesday Australia time), for the net contribution of exports to GDP. The number was a
disappointing 0.2% for the quarter, well short of the consensus 0.6%
estimate via Reuters polling. Public demand (in a nutshell, government
spending) came in at a 0.4% contribution to the GDP. Given the
disappointing inventory numbers released on Monday the best that can
be hoped for Q2 GDP is flat to slightly up. A negative result would
not be a huge surprise though.

AUD/USD
dripped lower to 0.6775 and thereabouts, holding a small range only.
NZD/USD was also slightly softer. EUR/USD and GBP/USD are little
changed while the CAD lost a few tics (higher USD/CAD) also.

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