ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: China directs (big) money into stock market

• Bank of Japan meet on Friday – will it be the fifth rate hike in 20 years?
• Ahead of the Bank of Japan decision on Friday are CPI data for December 2024
• It appears NASDAQ’s Twitter (X) account was hacked and used to promote memecoin ‘STONKS’
• The BOJ meet today and tomorrow and is unlikely to delay rate hike action
• Tesla is increasing prices in Canada
• China to channel “hundreds of billions of yuan” annually from insurers into equities
• Bank of England Financial Policy Committee External Member Carolyn Wilkins speaks Thursday
• European Central Bank’s Escriva speaking on Thursday
• PBOC says it’ll provide liquidity tools to fund share purchases “at proper time”
• Chinese equities jumping on all the supportive new policies
• China official says insurance firms still have room to increase their market investment
• Welcome to TradeCompass: Your Trusted Guide to Navigating the Markets
• Stellantis says its not moving 1500 jobs from Canada to the US
• Chinese official says 100s of bns of yuan to flow into shares every year from pensions
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1708 (vs. estimate at 7.2896)
• JP Morgan’s number one risk for stocks this year (TL;DR, its valuations)
• New Zealand to ease foreign investment rules in bid to boost economy
• Japanese December exports smash higher than expectations – but not imports
• South Korea Q4 economy suffered from weak consumer & business spending, political turmoil
• Saudi Arabia Aims to Boost U.S. Investments by $600 Billion
• South Korean Q4 2024 economic growth has come in weaker than expected
• U.S. Dollar Index (DXY) is a measure of the dollar vs. six major foreign currencies
• ICYMI – ECB’s Nagel says confident of hitting 2% inflation by mid-year
• TradeCompass for Bitcoin Futures (Valid for January 22 and 23, 2025)
• Has the US dollar topped, or is it just resting? Battle of the trend lines.
• China to boost long-term funds for equity markets
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 22 Jan.. The USD rises with higher yields. Stocks higher.
• Oil – private survey of inventory shows a headline crude oil build vs. draw expected
• S&P cannot close at a new high. New intraday high reached.
• Trade ideas thread – Thursday, 23 January, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

We
had a news conference from China today with representatives of the
Ministry of Finance, the securities regulator (China Securities
Regulatory Commission, CSRC) and the People’s Bank of China. The
news was about China’s move to have state-owned insurers raise
their investments in A-shares, and listed companies to conduct more
share buybacks, amongst others. Summaries here (also in the points
above but this’ll save you scanning the headlines):

• China to boost long-term funds for equity markets

• China to channel “hundreds of billions of yuan” annually from insurers into equities

Chinese
equities opened strongly higher but as I post have shown retracement.

From
Japan was welcome export news in December trade data:

• Japan’s
  exports rose for a third month
• Japan’s
  exports increased more than expected
• The
  trade balance showed a surplus for the first time in six months

In
other news, New Zealand is to loosen foreign investment rules.

Major
FX was relatively subdued, mostly showing little net change.

Bitcoin
and gold were heavy.

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.