Asia Summary and Highlights 30 Apr

Asia Session

While there has been no confirmation of intervention from Kanda, his words "We are ready 24 hours, so whether it's London, New York or Wellington, it doesn't make a difference." and price action seems to suggest they have intervened. USD/JPY is relatively quiet compared to Monday's volatility. In the short run 160 will be a psychological line in the sand for market participants. USD/JPY is slowly grinding upwards and is trading 0.3% higher at 156.78 after touching 157 figure earlier in the session as JGB sinks further than U.S. Treasury in yields.

The Australian March Retail Sales came in lower at -0.4% m/m vs expected at +0.2%. This confirms the domestic demand continue to weakens as savings deplete and real wage remain low. With USD trading broadly lower and Chinese equity reversing earlier gains, Aussie is taking a blow. AUD/USD is trading 0.52% lower at 0.6532, NZD/USD also 0.56% lower at 0.5944 while USD/CAD rose 0.19% as oil slips forty cents. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.15% and GBP/USD is down 0.16%.

North American session

While USD/JPY kept well within European ranges in North America, the moves were significant, while again ending near opening levels. An early bounce above 156 gradually extended above 156.80. The afternoon saw a sudden sharp fall to 155.10 from above 156.50 before a recovery to around 156.

Elsewhere the USD saw some modest gains early on before reversing direction. For EUR/USD the range was modest, dipping to 1.0690 before peaking at 1.0734. GBP/USD outperformed, rising to 1.2560 as EUR/GBP slipped to .8535 from .8555. EUR/CHF also edged lower while the commodity currencies kept to tight ranges.  There was no significant data, with the Dallas Fed’s manufacturing weak but little changed on the month.