ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD down, region’s equities rise | Forexlive

• ANZ: Australian labour market will remain very tight, see solid jobs growth in February
• Poll of analysts paints a mixed picture of what’s to come from the European Central Bank
• Japan’s Lower House to hold confirmation hearing for BOJ governor, deputies on Feb 24
• JP Morgan’s Kolanovic warns of “Volmageddon” 2.0 options risk
• China’s President Xi says expanding industrial, investment cooperation with Asia
• Australian Treasurer Chalmers to speak on the jobs report soon
• China January House Prices flat at 0.0% m/m (prior -0.25%)
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 6.8519 (vs. estimate at 6.5824)
• AUD/USD lower after the January employment report showed jobs down, unemployment rate up
• Australia January Employment change -11.5K (expected +20K) Unemployment rate 3.7% (3.5%)
• Australian Consumer Inflation Expectations survey for February 5.1% (prior 5.6%)
• KiwiBank says the RBNZ should pause its rate hikes, citing national state of emergency
• Japan January Trade Balance -3,496.6bn yen (vs. expected -3976.7bn yen, prior -1,448.5bnB)
• Japan December Core Machinery Orders +1.6% m/m (vs. expected 2.8%, prior -8.3%)
• UK CPI data was well below expectations – Bank of England rate hike implications
• Standard Chartered have revised their peak Federal Reserve rate higher, now expect 5.25%
• ICYMI – Goldman Sachs cut their US recession probability, to 25% (from 35%)
• CME says it will expand its suite of event contracts to include Bitcoin futures
• Citi is bearish AUD/USD, targeting to resell circa 0.6970-90
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Retail sales roar and meme stocks sizzle
• Trade ideas thread – Thursday, 16 February 2023

The
USD has lost ground for the session pretty much across the majors
board, but FX performance has been mixed. EUR and yen have performed
better than AUD and NZD, for example. There was little fresh news
flow, but we did get data points.

AUD/USD
shuddered lower after a big miss on the January labour market report.
Jobs were lost for a second month in a row and the unemployment rate
rose to its highest since May last year. It does seem there were some
seasonal factors unaccounted for (see the ANZ post above, analysts
there expect a solid bounce back for employment in the next report).
NZD/USD traded down with the AUD. While in New Zealand, there are
calls for a pause from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand at its
February 22 meeting due to the cyclone national disaster in the
country that has cause fatalities and widespread damage.

The
weaker USD has contributed to a bounce back for both the Australian
and New Zealand dollar.

Japanese
trade data, for January, showed the largest merchandise trade deficit
ever.

China’s
President Xi outlined plans to increase industrial and investment
cooperation with Asia.

Asian
equity markets:

• Japan’s
  Nikkei 225 +0.7%

• China’s
  Shanghai Composite +0.8%

• Hong
  Kong’s Hang Seng +2.2%

• South
  Korea’s KOSPI +1.9%

• Australia’s
  S&P/ASX 200 +0.8%