ForexLive Asia Wrap: AUD and NZD Rocket Higher Today

Markit/JMMA Japan Manufacturing PMI 48.5 (vs. prior at 47.7) Japanese Industrial Production in January +1.0% m/m (vs. +1.5% expected, prior was +2.4%) Japanese Industrial Production in January -5.1% y/y (Prior was -7.9%; expected -4.9%) Japan January Vehicle Production -9.9% y/y (vs. -17.2% in December) Japan's fin min Aso said the BOJ should avoid buying foreign bonds Outgoing BOJ head Shirakawa agreed, saying “Cannot buy foreign bonds for purpose of intervention” The BOJ nominations were formally made in the Japanese parliament – names as expected: Haruhiko Kurda nominated as head, Kikuo Iwata nominated as deputy, Hiroshi Nakaso nominated for the other deputy position. The nominations now go to committee for consideration. Reports today that 3 Chinese ships entered Japanese waters near the disputed islands New Zealand January Building Permits -0.4% m/m (vs. -2.0% expected and +9.4% prior) New Zealand ANZ February Business Confidence had a huge jump to 39.4 (prior was 22.7) New Zealand ANZ February Activity Outlook at 37.6 (prior was 31.4) New Zealand January M3 Money Supply 6.4% y/y (prior was +6.0%) South Korea January Industrial Production -1.5% m/m (S/A); +7.3% y/y MNI February China Business Sentiment Indicator 60.98 (prior was 55.16) Australia January HIA New Home Sales +4.2% m/m (vs. prior at +6.2%) Australia Q4 Private Capital Expenditure -1.2% (vs. +2.8% prior and +1.0% expected) Australia January Private Sector Credit +0.2% m/m (vs. +0.4% prior and +0.3% expected) Australia January Private Sector Credit +3.6% y/y (vs. +3.6% prior and +3.7% expected) Headlines crossed the wires from an August 2012 report from the RBA stating the $A was between 4 and 15% overvalued UK February Gfk Consumer Confidence Survey -26 (vs. prior of -26 and market expectation of -26) In late New York the Fed's Fisher made some comments, most notable (for him): Even hawks like me are not saying stop QE3 Also late out of the US, the US Senate confirmed Jack Lew as new US Treasury Secretary It was a relatively sedate day in EUR, JPY and GBP today, but we had enough action in NZD and AUD to make up for it. NZD rallied for most of the session, partly on the back of a huge jump in ANZ February Business Confidence from 22.7 in January to 39.4. It easily cleared 0.8300 to 0.8320/30 highs and didn't pull back at all from there as of writing. The downside of Graeme Wheeler's verbal intervention last week is that it cleared out a lot of NZD/USD longs, making the topside more vulnerable as there aren't as many sellers left in the market. AUD/USD, too, spent most of the day in rally mode. It fell a little on headlines crossing the wires from an August 2012 report from the RBA saying the AUD was 4 to 15% overvalued according to their modeling but found buyers quickly. The release of the CapEx figures saw another very quick dip but it then rallied hard and fast to 1.0285/90 highs on the back of better than expected capex plans for 2013/14 and a short market from the previous evening's trade below 1.0200.