The USD moved higher in the Asian session. The USDJPY started the greenbacks run to the upside. Technically, the pair moved above the 100-hour MA at 142.625. The Nikkei 225 moved higher. The run to the upside caught the attention of the other currencies:
- The EURUSD fell back below its 200-hour MA at 1.0993, taking some of the bull out of that pair technically. The 100 hour MA at 1.0969 is a key downside target that would need to be broken to increase the bearish bias.
- The GBPUSD stalled ahead of its 200-hour MA at 1.2791 early in the session and rotated back toward the 100-hour MA at 1.27346. The current price is near the low for the day at 1.2753.
- The USDCAD moved spiked higher to the 100-day MA for the 2nd day in a row at 1.3395, and although that level was breached, it went to 1.33986 (which was the high yesterday too) the price backed off. However, after a dip to 1.3379, the price has rotated back higher and retests the 100 day MA again. Key level going forward.
- The AUDUSD fell below and away from the 100-hour MA at 0.65629 and moved to a low of 0.6535, but then rotated back toward the broken MA at 0.65618. The price has moved back lower and that opens the downside for more downward probing
- The NZDUSD also fell below its 100-hour MA at 0.60925 and moved to a low of 0.6070. The price bounced back to retest the broken 100 hour MA, but like the AUDUSD, stalled ahead of the level and restarted a move lower.
A catalyst for the run higher ran into trouble after there was a report from Japan’s Aso saying that we are moving from a period of peacetime to times of turbulence in the Taiwan Strait. The Shanghai Composite opened lower. The Hang Seng index also fell sharply. However, there have since been some less alarmist headlines that China hacking into Japan’s defense cyber network could not be confirmed. As a result, the run higher in the USD, saw some modest backtracking, but has restarted its move higher.
Overall, the ranking of the strongest to the weakest is showing the USD as the runaway strongest of the major currencies, while the JPY was the weakest (followed by the AUD and the NZD).
In other markets, looking at the major stock indices:
- Japan’s Nikkei is up 0.30%
- China’s Shanghai composite index is trading unchanged.
- Hong Kongs Hang Seng index is down -267 points or -1.37% but was down -393 points at session lows .
- Australia’s S&P/ASX index is up 0.11%
- The US e-mini is trading -0.22%.
- Spot gold is trading down -$3.44 or -0.18% at $1933.
- Silver is up $0.05 at $23.14 and
- Bitcoin is trading steady at $29153.
Fundamentally, Japan Household spending fell -4.2% YoY but showed strength for the month with a gain of 0.9%. The Japan current account surplus higher than expected at 1.508T vs 1.395T est.
In China, their trade balance showed a greater-than-expected surplus of $80.6B (vs $70.6B est), but the mix was not good with both imports and exports falling.
The offshore USDCNH reached the highest level (lower CNH) since July 20 today.