Asia Summary and Highlights 5 February
Japan Overall Labour Cash Earnings for December 2024 +4.8% y/y
Asia Session
The Japan Overall Labour Cash Earnings for December 2024 is a huge beat at +4.8% y/y, a big jump from 3% in November 2024. It seems to suggest the change in stance from the BoJ members towards supportive of a hike in January. If the trend of wage growth continues in 2025, we may see more BoJ hikes. USD/JPY slipped 0.57% to 153.44 as U.S. Treasury underperformed JGB in yield.
Major equity indexes remain in the red as outlook is not bright with concern about further action from Trump in the geopolitical front. The Chinese equity market returned from the Lunar New Year holiday to open higher but reversed from the opening gap as session progress. AUD/USD is down 0.09% to 0.6249, NZD/USD is up 0.1% and USD/CAD rose 0.12% along soft oil. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.02% and GBP/USD is down 0.11%.
North American session
The USD weakened in North America, due to reduced trade worries and assisted by a steeper than expected 516k fall in US December job openings, though this did not fully reverse the gains of the preceding two months.
USD/CAD extended losses to near 1.43. USD/JPY fell by over a big figure to 154.30. EUR/USD saw relatively moderate advances to 1.0380 with GBP/USD and USD/CHF seeing similar moves. AUD/CAD stabilized seeing AUD/USD moving above .6250.