Asia Summary and Highlights 14 November
USD/JPY continues its rally
Australian October Employment softer but remain healthy
Asia Session
The October Australian employment report has come in slightly softer than expected but remains healthy. Headline employer gains only 15.9k with unemployment rate steadies at 4.1% and participation rate slipped to 67.1% from 67.2%. The softer employment data confirms the slowing pace of wage hike in Q3 but remains to be seen if such trend continues. AUD/USD is trading 0.25% lower at 0.6469 with broadly soft sentiment, NZD/USD is down 0.34% to 0.5860 while USD/CAD rose 0.11%.
USD/JPY continues its rally and reached a new three month high at 156.07. The Japan side has been weirdly quiet but it seems we are still some way from actual intervention, given the current pace of weakness is onesided but not as rapid as before. With both the U.S. and JGB yields higher, USD/JPY is trading 0.36% higher at 156.01. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.12% and GBP/USD down 0.18%.
North American session
US CPI came in as expected at 00.2% overall and 0.3% ex food and energy. The USD initially saw a modest dipped as the data was seen as increasing the chances of a December Fed easing and the USD ended firmer. Comments from Fed’s Logan and Musalem were somewhat hawkish.
USD/JPY slipped below 154.50 on the CPI but later saw highs above 155.50. EUR/USD fell to 1.0565 from 1.0640. EUR/GBP and EUR/CHF were slightly weaker. AUD/USD fell below .65 and underperformed USD/CAD, despite the latter rising to near 1.40 from 1.3940 seen soon after the CPI.