ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD carried on higher | Forexlive

Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Lowe, read from the bottom up for the chronology:

Other:

It
was a sparse news and data day apart from a barrage of central bank
speakers. Major FX continued its Thursday move of a pretty much
across-the-board stronger US dollar.

We
had comments during the session from:

Federal
Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester who didn’t add
much to her (hawkish) comments during the US Thursday session
Bank
of Canada Deputy Governor Beaudry who argued to stay the course on
the BoC inflation battle
and
Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Lowe in a long, long testimony to
the Australian parliament (committee)

There
are multiple posts above from Lowe’s testimony (like I said, it was
long) and once again Lowe made the point that there were more
interest rate rises to come in Australia. He also tentatively flagged
the idea that there could be rate cuts in 2024 (note the last time
Lowe mentioned what he thought would be 2024 policy moves it didn’t work out well at all 😉
).

In
New Zealand, Finance Minister Roberton said Cyclone Gabrielle’s
devastation of the North Island is likely to exacerbate the economic
slowdown. He added that while inflationary pressure would get a boost
from the recovery the evidence shows the CPI has peaked. The RBNZ
meet next week, February 22, and the pressure is on to pause on a
+50bp rate hike that is widely expected.

Bitcoin
fell
back, with lows back under US$23.5K. Hawkish
rhetoric from Fed officials and further signs of an aggressive US,
and
Canadian, regulatory
clampdown weighed.

An
interesting item for equities in the region.
A high-profile Chinese investment banker, Chair
and CEO of China Renaissance, was reported as not contactable.Shares
in
the firm dropped
as much as 50% in early Hong
Kong trading.

Asian
equity markets: