ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Mid-East tensions jump higher again

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It
was a weekend of escalation in the Middle East with an attack in
northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border leaving three US service
members dead and many more injured. Iran's mission to the United
Nations denied Tehran’s involvement. It appears inevitable that
there will be a US military response. This came quickly on the heels
of the Houthi hit on a tanker in the Red Sea. The result was a gap
higher opening for oil and gold in Sunday evening futures trade, and
a little lower for US equity index futures. All of these gaps have
been filled. Gold is, so far at least, the only one to have traded
back towards its opening price.
</p><p>Across
major FX moves have been relatively subdued. It appears that ‘waiting
on the FOMC’ has been adopted as an excuse to hold back on much
activity already. The FOMC statement is not due until Wednesday
afternoon, US time. AUD/USD ticked around 20 or points higher.</p><p>China
continues to be a focus. There is more in the point above but in
summary:</p><ul><li>there
were further stock short sale restrictions announced over the weekend</li><li>a
Hong Kong court has ordered the liquidation of deeply troubled
property development firm Evergrande. Trading in its shares was
halted.</li><li>China
plans to merge three of its biggest ‘bad debt’ managers into its
sovereign wealth fund</li><li>Trump
floated the possibility of 60% tariffs on Chinese goods</li></ul><p>China’s
mainland stock indexes fell while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose.
</p><p>The Monetary Authority of Singapore left its monetary policy unchanged, as expected. </p>

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