ICAP Glitch Showing Yuan Plunging 8.8% Fuels Trader Jitters
- Inaccurate third party data caused erroneous pricing: ICAP
- CFETS data show onshore spot rate rose amid weakening dollar
Yuan investors -- already nervous about Donald Trump’s focus on China’s currency policy -- got a shock Tuesday when ICAP Plc data incorrectly showed the currency sinking to 7.5 per dollar.
The decline showed up on Google and Xe.com, causing a stir on Twitter. ICAP’s prices had the dollar-yuan at about 7.5 Tuesday even before the spot market started trading in Shanghai. The error was caused by an inaccurate third party feed, ICAP said in a statement, adding it has removed that party from its data sources.
“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.”