Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly weaker against the USD as USD continued to gain strongly in the aftermaths of hawkish Fed cut. The only winners are CNH by 0.22%, SGD 0.13% and HKD by 0.01% ; the largest loser are IDR 1.23%, THB 0.83%, MYR 0.79%, TWD and KRW 0.57%, IDR and CNY 0.14%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.3091 from 7.3249 previously closed. Onshore spot market is trading higher at 7.2958 from 7.2857 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed the onshore market and is trading higher at 7.1421 compared to 7.1406 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading higher at 16313 from 16098 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 16379 from 16282 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 85.07 from 84.95 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 85.32 from 85.28 previously closed.

North America Session

After being led higher by USD/JPY in Europe, GBP/USD led the USD higher in North America, dipping below 1.26 on the fact there were three dissenting votes against the BoE decision to leave rates unchanged, with losses eventually extending to near 1.25. EUR/USD fell to touch 1.0350 from around 1.04. USD/JPY reached as high as 157.80 but corrected back up 157.35. The AUD and CAD were quieter, sustaining most though not all  of their European gains.

US data showed initial claims falling to 220k from 242k, and Q3 GDP revised up to 3.1% from 2.8%. However, December’s Philly Fed manufacturing survey was weak, falling to -16.4 from -5.5. Later November existing home sales rose 4.8% to 4.15m. The UST curve steepened with Trump demanding that the debt ceiling be raised or eliminated as negotiations to avert a government shutdown continued.