Asian Session Forex Recap – Sept. 14, 2016

Article Highlights

AU Westpac consumer sentiment inches 0.3% higher vs. 2.0% uptick in August
Japan’s industrial production slips down by 0.4% vs. 0.0% expected and previous

Partner Center Find a Broker

Risk-taking was the name of the game during the Asian session, as the Greenback gave up some of its gains from the U.S. session. Read on to see the biggest forex movers!

Major Events:

Talks of more BOJ easing – As mentioned in my U.S. session recap, talks of the BOJ possibly implementing deeper negative interest rates kept the yen on the bears’ crosshairs. Judging by the yen’s price action, Asian session forex traders are still not over the rumors.

Of course, it also didn’t hurt that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe went under the spotlight today, saying that the impact of the BOJ’s policies are “gradually spreading to the real economy” and that the nation is on its way to escaping deflation.

Profit-taking? – High-yielding currencies and oil prices gained some ground during the Asian session despite a lack of major economic catalyst. One possible reason is that traders are taking off their short positions ahead of next week’s Fed statement as well as the Chinese holidays later this week.

Australia’s ASX is up by 0.21% and Hang Seng is up by 0.19% but the Shanghai index is down by 0.66%. Interestingly, Nikkei is down by 0.33% despite prospects of more easing from the BOJ. Oil prices are also higher with Brent crude oil up by 0.32% to $47.25 and U.S. crude 0.51% higher at $45.13.

Major Market Movers:

JPY – Talks of more BOJ easing extended into the Asian session. USD/JPY shot up by another 23 pips (+0.22%) to 102.92, EUR/JPY is 39 pips higher (+0.34%) at 115.52, and GBP/JPY gained 36 pips (+0.27%) to 135.82.

Comdolls – Commodity-related currencies took advantage of the lack of economic releases and a bit of profit-taking during the session.

AUD/USD is up by 21 pips (+0.28%) to .7484, USD/CAD is down by 20 pips (+0.15%) to 1.3151, and NZD/USD is up by 22 pips (+0.30%) to .7267.

Watch Out For:

6:45 am GMT: France’s final CPI expected to remain at 0.3%

8:30 am GMT: U.K.’s claimant count change (1.7K expected, -8.6K previous) Read Forex Gump’s trading guide if you’re trading the event!

8:30 am GMT: U.K. unemployment rate expected to remain at 4.9%
8:30 am GMT: U.K. average earnings (2.1% expected, 2.4% previous)
9:00 am GMT: Switzerland ZEW economic expectations
9:00 am GMT: Euro Zone industrial production (-0.8% expected, 0.6% previous)