ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Subdued FX ranges ahead of the FOMC

Once
again major forex rates traded in limited ranges ahead of a big
Wednesday coming up with:

• UK
  inflation data,
• the
  Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statement,
• and
  Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s news conference.

The
early part of the session brought comments from US Treasury Secretary
Yellen on how the US views potential intervention on the yen. USD/JPY
dribbled a little lower on the remarks. These were soon followed by
intervention-related comments from Japan’s Finance Ministry’s Vice
Finance Minister for International Affairs Kanda, often referred to
as Japan’s ‘top currency diplomat’. USD/JPY lost a further few
points. As the headline to this post says, though, ranges were
limited and that applied to USD/JPY.

Data
from Japan today showed exports fell for the second consecutive
month.

The
scheduled event of the session was the People’s Bank of China policy
rate setting. Loan Prime Rates (LPR) remain unchanged at today’s rate
setting, as expected:

• 3.45%
  for the one year
• 4.20%
  for the five year.

As
I post a news conference attended by representatives from the
People’s Bank of China, the National Development and Reform
Commission of the People’s Republic of China (NDRC), the Ministry of
Finance, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is
underway. So far there have been plenty of comments but nothing out
of the ordinary. See bullets above. Zou Lan, head of the monetary
policy department at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), did emphasize
that:

• “People
  usually discuss more about thee exchange rate of the yuan against the
  dollar, but in fact, the exchange rate of the yuan against a basket
  of currencies can more comprehensively reflect the changes in the
  value of the currency”.

Prior
to this, the Bank set the USD/CNY reference rate at its lowest since
August 14.

Oil prices fell back during the timezone despite a larger-than-expected crude draw (see bullets above).

Asian
equity markets followed on from a weak Wall Street lead:

• Japan’s
  Nikkei 225 -0.36%

• China’s
  Shanghai Composite -0.38%

• Hong
  Kong’s Hang Seng -0.5%

• South
  Korea’s KOSPI -0.1%

• Australia’s
  S&P/ASX 200 -0.6%

Offshore yuan update: