- KPMG in Canada has added Bitcoin and Ethereum to its corporate treasury
- ANZ on RBA rate hikes - "every meeting from June is live"
- US has approved a possible $100 mn Taiwan Patriot missile defense system program
- ANZ expect a bounceback in Australia business conditions
- JP Morgan are bullish US equities
- RBNZ Governor Orr comments on Central Bank Digital Currency
- Chatter about that Sri Lanka is on the brink of a sovereign bond default
- RBNZ inflation data due on Wednesday will be a focus
- ex-RBA Edwards says there could be 4 Reserve Bank of Australia rate hikes this year
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.3569 (vs. estimate at 6.3543)
- Bank of America are forecasting 7 Federal Reserve rate hikes this year
- Australia business confidence data for January +3 (vs. -12 prior)
- SoftBank’s proposed US$66bn sale of chip group Arm to Nvidia has collapsed
- UK data: BRC January like for like sales +8.1% y/y (prior +0.6%)
- Japan data for December: Real wages -2.2% y/y and Household spending -0.2% y/y
- Morgan Stanley bullish euro - says a hawkish ECB is likely at the March meeting
- UK PM Johnson considering deploying RAF fighters, RN Warships re Ukraine
- Australia weekly consumer confidence 99.9 (prior 101.8)
- Tokyo COVID-19 measures to be extended to March 6
- US announces deal to ease tariffs on Japanese steel imports
- ICYMI - ECB President Lagarde dials back expectations on "measurable tightening."
- Trade ideas thread - Tuesday 08 February 2022
- The broader major indices close lower in an up and down session.
The overnight gains for AUD/USD and NZD/USD continued during the Asian morning, albeit on a small scale. Each gained a few points only.
USD/JPY rose from just over 115.05 to hit a high above 115.40. The initial yen weakness was associated with the report that SoftBank’s sale of Arm to Nvidia has fallen through. The crumbling of the proposed deal was being talked about in prior weeks, it was facing stern regulator resistance across multiple jurisdictions, but financial media confirmation reports early in the session here triggered some yen sales.
EUR/USD meanwhile has given back its (tiny) early pop but the range is not going to trouble record keepers.
Cable is hardly net changed for the session while USD/CAD eked out a few points higher only.
On the data agenda today the focus was Australian business confidence and conditions for January (the monthly National Australia Bank Business Survey). Confidence recovered somewhat from its collapse in December while the more objective Conditions indicator softened a little. The drop in conditions was pretty much shrugged off, expectations are there will be improvement ahead as Australia continues to bounce out of the Omicron wave. Of interest also from Australia was an ex-RBA policy board member alerting to the possibility of four rapid RBA rate hikes later in 2022. More on all of this in the bullets above.
USD/JPY higher: