ICAP ‘data glitch’ sees yuan weakens to 7.5 against US dollar
SINGAPORE: Yuan investors — already nervous about United States president-elect Donald Trump’s focus on China’s currency policy — got a shock yesterday when ICAP Plc data showed the currency sinking to 7.5 per US dollar.
The decline, which traders said was an error, showed up on both Google and Xe.com, causing a stir on Twitter. ICAP’s prices had the US dollar-yuan at about 7.5 yesterday even before the spot market started trading in Shanghai.
Benny Luk, North Asia regional chief executive officer at ICAP (Hong Kong) Ltd, said he couldn’t confirm the price quote and that the firm was looking into it.
“Those are bum quotes and I don’t think we should accord any credibility” to them, said Peter Chia, a foreign-exchange strategist at United Overseas Bank Ltd in Singapore.
“I’ve seen websites display far away figures before, usually on the weekends when the feed is stale.
“I’m a bit surprised that those price levels are still lingering on ICAP. On the broker level, the trades are orderly.”
The official exchange rate rose 0.1 per cent to 6.8770 per US dollar as of 2.01pm in Shanghai, China Foreign Exchange Trade System prices show. Yuan traded in Hong Kong’s overseas market fell 0.3 per cent, according to Bloomberg data.
The yuan has tumbled three per cent against the greenback this quarter and recently traded at an eightyear low as Trump’s win boosted the outlook for US inflation and amid
Bloomberg pic
even before persistent Chinese capital outflows.
Google Inc had a bug in the system and the company was fixing the problem, said a source.
ICAP data available on the Bloomberg terminal continued to show extreme moves in China’s currency, with the rate oscillating between 7.48 and 6.87. Bloomberg