ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD rally continues, BTC tests US$80K

• UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband to visit China for talks on UK-Sino energy cooperation
• Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Goolsbee speaking (very) late on Friday
• Official China February PMIs will be published on the weekend – improvement expected
• Trump speaking Friday at 9am, 1pm
• Trump endorses CR (government funding bill) through September.
• Bank of England Deputy Governor Ramsden is speaking on monetary policy early on Friday
• Bitcoin under 80K
• Tokyo inflation slows – recap
• BoJ dep gov Uchida says Bank will taper JGB purchases despite yield moves
• Bitcoin hit US$82K
• China expected to ramp up municipal special debt quotas at next week’s parliament meeting
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1738 (vs. estimate at 7.2873)
• US inflation (January PCE) data due Friday – the critical market moving ranges to watch
• Australian Private Sector Credit (January 2025) +0.5% m/m (prior + 0.6%)
• UK firms became more optimistic in February, snapping a seven-month losing streak
• BoJ’s Uchida says Japan’s economy on a moderate recovery path – some weak spots
• Japan January preliminary industrial output-1.1% m/m (vs. expected -1.2%)
• Japan January retail sales +3.9% y/y (expected +4.0%)
• Tokyo February headline CPI +2.9% y/y vs. +3.2% expected
• ICYMI – OPEC+ is hesitant on going ahead with planned April oil output hike
• ICYMI – Japanese labour unions push for record wage hike amid rising costs
• New Zealand, ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence rose a little to 96.6 in February
• OpenAI’s Sam Altman says will add tens of thousands of GPUs next week
• Trade ideas thread – Friday, 28 February, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
• Fed’s Harker drops a rate hike hint bombshell – ‘could move in either direction’
• US Bessent says open to the idea that other countries tariffs could come down or go away
• Fed’s Harker indicates the Fed Funds rate is going to be staying on hold
• NASDAQ has it worst day since January 27.
• North Korea has test fired a strategic cruise missile to test nuclear deterrence

I’ll
come back to the yen in a moment. As is often the case it walked its
own road.

The
US dollar rally extended further with AUD, NZD, gold, GBP, EUR all
sliding to greater or lesser extents. Bitcoin dropped briefly under
US$80k, the volatile beast has lost more than 25% from its top out on
January 20.

The
focus for the session was the inflation data from Japan. Not too long
ago Tokyo CPI was a non-event. Not any more. The data was a touch
softer than expected and mainly down from the previous month, but
still at levels indicating above, or close to, the Bank of Japan
target level. USD/JPY jumped higher after the release, trading for a
few moments above 150.10 before plunging to lows circa 149.11. Bank
of Japan Deputy Governor Uchida spoke, indicating the Bank’s plans
to taper JGB purchases would continue despite firmer yields. As I
update USD/JPY is sitting back around 149.60 or so, little net
changed on the session.

Chinese stocks dropped following Trump’s Thursday announcement of an additional 10% tax on the country’s imports.

BTC from 98K on February 21 to 80K. A week is a long time in crypto …

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