Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- USD adds to Friday’s Yellen-inspired gains versus Aussie, Kiwi and Canadian dollars, while yen weakens further as benign retail sales data fuels speculation of delay to PM Abe’s tax hike.

• USD/CNY fixing set at 6.5784, highest since February 2011
• USD/JPY +0.74% at 111.13 vs 110.32-111.16 range
  • Driven higher ahead of Tokyo open on stop loss buying, momentum and leveraged flows: traders
  • Japan April retail sales -0.8% y/y vs est. -1.2%
  • Japan risks credit downgrade if sales-tax increase delayed by Abe without explaining plans to cut its deficit: WSJ
• USD846m of option strikes expiring tomorrow at 111.00
• AUD/USD -0.31% at 0.7160 vs 0.7149-0.7187 range
  • Australia HIA April new home sales -4.7% m/m vs March’s +8.9%
  • 1Q inventories rise 0.4% q/q versus estimate of unchanged; April private home sales fall 4.7% m/m
  • Options strikes expiring at 0.7200 include A$338m on May 31, A$376 on June 2 and A$441m June 3
• NZD/USD -0.24% at 0.6685 vs 0.6676-0.6709 range
  • Near term support at 0.6656 200-DMA
  • 9.7% of farmers said they had faced “undue pressure” from their bank over their mortgage, up from about 8% in Feb.: survey
  • RBNZ foreign currency intervention capacity NZ$10.58b, up from NZ$10.35b a month earlier
• EUR/USD -0.09% at 1.1105 vs 1.1098-1.1121 range
  • Leaning on 1.1098 200-DMA support, adjacent to EUR1.7b of put options expiring June 2
  • Today: Merkel, Juncker, Tusk Speak in Luxembourg: French GDP, German CPI
• GBP/USD -0.04% to 1.4617 vs 1.4600-1.4631 range
  • Ladbrokes say, proportion of money wagered on Brexit over last 48 hours rises
• USD/CAD +0.51% to 1.3088 vs 1.3006-1.3092 range
• BBDXY +0.3% at 1,203.62
  • U.S. Treasury markets closed until futures open in Tokyo tomorrow due to U.K./U.S. holiday’s
• Crude oil, gold drop; copper rises