Asia Summary and Highlights 17 December

Asia Session

We had comment from Japan economy minister Akazawa reiterates BoJ will conduct monetary policy appropriately, which means little after earlier "leak" last week suggest the BoJ is tilted towards on hold or at least what market participants are perceiving. Still, no one would like to be caught wrong footed and seems to have driven to a consolidation in USD/JPY on Tuesday. USD/JPY is holding onto the 154 figure to trade unchanged at 154.09.

Australia consumer confidence continues to contract and points toward a soft private consumption in the coming data release. Regional sentiment is also soft while U.S. equities outperform. AUD/USD is down 0.25% to 0.6354, NZD/USD also down 0.25% while USD/CAD is up 0.14% as oil soft. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.02% and GBP/USD is down 0.04%.

North American session

The USD saw early strength but this faded later in the session, EUR/USD bottoming at 1.0475 before moving back above 1.05. USD/JPY peaked near 154.50 but held above 154. GBP/USD was relatively strong, peaking near 1.27 with only a modest correction, seeing EUR/GBP weaker below .8290, though EUR/CHF was stronger near .84. Germany’s government lost a confidence vote, paving the way for an early election. 

US data was mixed with December’s Empire State manufacturing index slipping to 0.2 from 31.2 and the S and P manufacturing PMI falling to 48.3 from 49.7, but the services PMI was very strong at 58.5 from 46.1. The USD peaked shortly after the S and P data. Canadian Finance Minister Freeland resigned, preferring to avoid fiscal stimulus awaiting the US tariff threat, USD/CAD saw early gains to 1.4271 and ended still weaker near 1.4250.