Asia Summary and Highlights 11 Feb
Risk upbeat
Asia Session
Risk is upbeat to start Wednesday as we see U.S. major equity indexes all in the green, so as precious metal. Japanese equities continue to lead the pack. The higher Q4 Australian seems to suggest most were expecting a RBA hike. AUD/USD is trading 0.59% higher at 0.716. NZD/USD is also 0.25% higher while USD/CAD slips 0.21%.
JPY is gaining strongly on Wednesday, a Japanese holiday. It seems to suggest previous selling pressure persists after the dust of election settles. The far end moderating yields also suggest market participants are less concerned about fiscal irresponsiblity for now. USD/JPY is trading 0.63% lower at 153.40. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.13% and GBP/USD is up 0.15%.
North American session
After a fairly quiet European morning, the USD came under pressure on weaker than expected US data, with December retail sales unchanged and Q4’s employment cost up by 0.7%. The response was most visible in USD/JPY, which slipped to near 154 from above 155 before a modest correction to 154.30, and USD/CAD, which slipped to 1.3525 from 1.3570, before correcting to 1.3550. Hawkish comments from FOMC voters Hammack and Logan helped the USD come off its lows.
EUR/USD was choppy with no real direction, ending little changed near 1.19. Continued pressure on PM Starmer weighed on the GBP, with GBP/USD falling below 1.3650 after meeting resistance near 1.37. EUR/GBP erased a brief dip below .87 while EUR/CHF returned to .9130 after slipping to .91. AUD/USD was little changed near .7075 as were the USD overall, and equities, despite lower UST yields.