ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: USD a touch lower in thinned Asia trade
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Forex news for Asia trading
Thursday 1 October 2020
China and Hong Kong markets
were closed for a holiday today. HK will be out again tomorrow
(Friday) while China will be out for ‘Golden Week’ through to
October 7. The absence of these markets thinned out trade in Asia
today and to subtract a little more the Tokyo Stock Exchange (and
some others in Japan) suffered a systems/tech outage that halted
trade.
The
impactful headlines of the session were those related to apparent
progress being made in US coronavirus economic relief talks. US
Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and House Speaker Pelosi are said to be in
continuing talks on Wednesday evening, which will then carry on on
Thursday. The House delayed voting on the prospect there might be
some agreement between the two sides. Indeed Mnuchin later indicated
he had boosted his offer toward 1.6tln (and other associated
measures). US airlines
announced job furloughs, increasing pressure on the politicians to
work towards agreement.
Japanese
media reported the government there is considering further economic
stimulus
US
stock index futures on Globex traded higher and the dollar (and yen)
lower on the more upbeat sentiment the news items triggered. Having
said this (most) ranges for currencies have been small only.
EUR/USD
has traded back briefly above 1.1740 while AUD and NZD are also both
higher against the dollar. Gains too for cable while USD/CAD dipped a
little further. Gold has eked out a small gain.
USD/JPY
is relatively stable, up a few points only, the more favourable risk
environment not encouraging flows to yen today.
The
standout currency was offshore yuan, CNH adding notably to its gains
again the USD.
US
presidential politics was relatively calm during the session here
with comments from both candidates but nothing like the strident
exchanges of the debate on Tuesday evening US time.
As I update the Japan Exchange is indicating trading will halt for the rest of the day on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. There is speculation the outage is the result of hacking but the exchange has said this is not the case.
