Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA
EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD as the greenback was trading lower broadly beofre the U.S. CPI. KRW saw the largest gains of 0.57%, followed by PHP 0.52%, IDR 0.14%, CNH 0.11%, TWD 0.1%, CNY 0.08%, SGD 0.06% and HKD 0.01%; while the only losers are THB 0.2% and MYR 0.04%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.1751 compared to the 7.1832 at previous close. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading lower at 7.1668 from 7.1727. 12 month NDF followed the offshore market and is trading lower at 6.9830 compared to 6.9883 previous closed.
USD/IDR spot market is trading higher at 15549 from 15570 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 15561 from 15562 previous closed.
USD/INR onshore spot market is trading unchanged at 83.03. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 83.19 from 83.11 previously closed.

NA Session

The USD gained ground through the North American session, benefiting from a stronger than expected December CPI print along with another fall in continuing jobless claims and still low initial jobless claims. December CPI saw 0.3% rises in both the headline and core measures. Market consensus was 0.2% for headline and 0.3% for core, so the data was only modestly on the strong side. However, the consensus for y/y rates was 3.2% and 3.8% for headline and core, and the outcomes were 3.4% and 3.9% - both above expectations, suggesting a slightly stronger outcome than the m/m data suggested. 
EUR/USD initially spiked higher to 1.10 from 1.0985 before the data, but this was very brief and by the end of the session it had slipped back below 1.0950. AUD/USD saw the biggest decline, falling 1% to 0.6650, helped by a weaker equity market, with the S&P losing nearly 1% after futures briefly spiked above 4800 after the data. But the JPY also underperformed the EUR, with USD/JPY jumping more than half a figure to trade above 146. EUR/JPY briefly traded above 160 before edging back below this level.