Asia Summary and Highlights 3 Jan

Asia Session

Aftershock from the weekend earthquake hits Japan in the same area but the magnitude is lower and sees to do less damage this time. After a strong up day for USD/JPY, range in the FX market is so far subdued. U.S. and JGB yields are all flat with global sentiment tilting slightly negative. USD/JPY is barely up 0.02% at 142 figure after gaining a figure on Tuesday.

Kiwi is the best performer within majors against the greenback despite sour regional risk sentiment and soft commodity price. While it can be partially attributed to broad USD weakness, the magnitude of the rebound is also related to the pace of fall on Tuesday (Kiwi the biggest loser of 1.21%). NZD/USD is trading 0.38% higher at 0.6273, AUD/USD is also trading 0.11% higher at 0.6768 while USD/CAD rose 0.04% on weaker oil. Elsewhere, EUR/USD is up 0.19% and GBP/USD is up 0.16%.

North American session
The USD stayed firm through the US session, gaining ground across the board, but particularly against the CAD, with USD/CAD gaining around half a figure. The EUR and JPY continued to edge a little lower after losses in the European morning, with the AUD and GBP also losing around 0.3%. 
There was little news of note, but the S&P manufacturing PMIs was revised slightly lower in the final December release, helping to trigger a small decline in yields after the overnight gains.