Asia Summary and Highlights 5 Feb
Australian Trade Balance Beats
Asia Session
The Australian December Trade Balance is a headline beat. The December export increased by 1% while import contracted by 0.8%. On balance, it is a decent report but fall short of RBA's anticipation of strong domestic demand. The broader risk atmosphere is sour on Thursday. And dragged the AUD/USD 0.41% lower at 0.6969, along with the slide in Silver and Gold. NZD/USD is also trading 0.28% and USD/CAD rises 0.16%.
The latest polls are suggesting the LDP will be regaining majoirty in the February Lower House election. However, market participants are waiting for more clarity before their bets as voter sentiment could change rapidly. Short end JGB yields continue to search for high grounds while longer end moderates further. USD/JPY is trading 0.06% higher at 156.90. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.17% and GBP/USD is down 0.25%.
European and North American sessions
The USD was generally softer, particularly against the riskier currencies. US data was mixed, with weaker than expected 22k increase in January’s ADP employment report doing little to undermine the USD before a stronger than expected unchanged January ISM services index of 53.8 reinforced it.
EUR/USD saw only modest losses from 1.1830, finding support below 1.18, but GBP/USD fell to 1.3650 from 1.3720 as EUR/GBP rose to .8640 after seeing lows near .8615. EUR/CHF was little changed near .9170. USD/JPY picked up to 156.90 from 156.30, AUD/USD fell below .70 from .7030, while USD/CAD advanced to 1.3670 from 1.3630.