Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform individually against the USD as the greenback continue to remain under strong pressure from JPY and Fed cut expectations. MYR saw the largest gains of 0.46%, followed by TWD 0.21%, IDR 0.15%, THB 0.13%, KRW0.11% and PHP 0.03%; the biggest losers are CNH 0.34%, CNY 0.25%, SGD 0.05% and HKD 0.03%.

USD/CNH is trading higher at 7.2513 from 7.2270 previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading higher at 7.2450 from 7.2266 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading higher at 7.0413 compared 7.0345 to previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 16237 from 16260 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 16287 from 16254 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading unchanged at 83.72. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 83.81 from 83.78 previously closed.

NA Session

There was only a minor reaction to the BoE decision to cut rates, markets noting the close 5:4 vote. EUR/GBP rose by around 10 pips to touch above .8450 on the news but this was soon reversed.

US data was soft, firstly a rise in initial claims to 249k from 235k and a weaker than expected 0.9% annualized rise in unit labor costs, which saw minor USD losses.  Later July’s ISM manufacturing index slipped to 46.8 from 48.5 with employment particularly weak at 43.4 from 49.3. The USD again saw modest knee-jerk losses, but these were erased and more versus the riskier currencies, as a positive start for equities gave way to a sharp sell-off.

USD/JPY, which had peaked near 150.90, slipped to near 149.50 while USD/CHF slipped to .8730 from .8770. However, EUR/USD ended little changed slightly below 1.08 and GBP/USD saw fresh lows for the day below 1.2750 as EUR/GBP moved above its initial high seen after the BoE decision. AUD/USD fell to .65 from a high of .6560 and USD/CAD rose to 1.3870 from a low near 1.38.