Asia Summary and Highlights 4 Apr

Asia Session

The antipodeans are the standout performer against the USD as the greenback trade broadly softer. The Australian service PMI continue to show the strength of Australian services sector, which has been highlighted by the RBA, a critical factor in the high inflation picture in Australia. While we do not see RBA to resume tightening, a sequence of strong service data may push back early cut expectations. Regional risk is performing individually while U.S. equity indexes are higher. AUD/USD is trading 0.37% higher at 0.6589 and NZD/USD is 0.44% higher at 0.6035 while USD/CAD slipped 0.12% to 1.3510 with oil holding near recent high.

USD/JPY continue to hover around recent high above 151 and we did not hear any verbal intervention from the Japanese officials on Thursday, which seems to suggest the BoJ would be content with stalling further weakness in the JPY, rather than strongly bringing it up for now. Both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields are higher. USD/JPY is trading 0.03% lower at 151.64. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.1% and GBP/USD is up 0.03%.

North American session

The USD fell through the US session, the trigger for the move being weaker ISM services data. The headline index slipped to 51.4 from 52.6, but more significant was a slide in prices paid to 53.4 from 58.6, reaching its lowest level since March 2020 at the height of the pandemic. The slide continued after comments from Fed’s Powell, who stated that recent strong data had not materially altered the picture, though the Fed needed more confidence that inflation was returning to target before easing, which most at the Fed continue to see starting this year.

EUR/USD spiked above 1.08 on the ISM services data and eventually rose to 1.0830 while GBP/USD reached 1.2650. AUD/USD rose from near .65 to .6560. USD/JPY saw some early gains, peaking at 151.95 after a stronger than expected 184k rise in ADP employment and hawkish remarks from Fed’s Bostic, both of which got little response elsewhere. After the ISM services data USD/JPY slipped back to 151.70.