ForexLive Asia FX news wrap: Oil price surges (even more, again)
The lead in to the Asia session:
Forexlive Americas FX news wrap: Powell says Fed will take tightening at measured pace
If you scan across your charts
of major FX rates you’ll assume there wasn’t much for news, data,
nor central banks in Asia today. But, there was plenty. Check out the
bullets above, but in brief:
- The
UNHCR said one million refugees have now fled Ukraine to neighbouring
countries. -
MSCI
and FTSE Russell are cutting Russian equities from widely-tracked
indexes. - Fitch & Moody’s slashed Russia’s sovereign rating to junk
-
Russian
forces have overtaken Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson. -
Taiwan
suffered a major power and internet outage (news like this from
Taiwan is viewed very carefully indeed with markets on edge about a
China move on the island with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine –
regardless of how far-fetched this might seem). -
Japan
Airlines cancelled all flights to and from Europe on Thursday, citing
concerns over Ukraine and risks to airlines. JAL: and ANA have said
before they are considering routes that avoid Russian airspace.
On
the data front we had services PMIs from the region (these do not
attract the same focus as do manufacturing PMIs though) and, of more
note, from Australia:
- The
trade surplus widened sharply to AUD12.9bn in January. It had
narrowed in the recent months prior. Exports accelerated on
commodities. Imports
fell,
both
capital and intermediate goods
down
. -
Building
approvals had their largest one month decline since the data started
in July 1983. High density approvals fell to their lowest since July
of 2012.
On
the central bank watch it was a BOJ monetary policy board member
saying
the energy price spike may push Japan’s
inflation near the BOJ’s 2% goal, albeit temporarily (where have we
heard transitory before?).
The
USD has added on a few points against JPY, AUD, NZD and EUR.
GBP/USD
is more resilient though.
Oil … higher again:
