Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD as the greenback slipped on weaker than expected payroll data. KRW saw the largest gains of 0.94%, followed by IDR 0.63%, THB 0.43%, SGD 0.39%, TWD 0.36%, MYR 0.34%, PHP 0.31%, CNH 0.19%, INR 0.04% and HKD 0.02%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.1928 compared to the 7.2063 at previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is closed to observe the golden week. 12 month NDF followed the offshore market and is trading lower at 7.0042 compared to 7.0102 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 16083 from 16185 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 16033 from 16157 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading lower at 83.43 from 83.46 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 83.47 from 83.49 previously closed.

NA Session

The US non-farm payroll was softer than expected with a 175k increase, with a rise in unemployment to 3.9% and a 0.2% increase in average hourly earnings on the soft side too. The USD immediately sold off, EUR/USD moving above 1.08 from around 1.0750 and USD/JPY falling below 152 from above 153. 

However most of the USD’s gains subsequently erased, EUR/USD stabilizing around 1.0770 with USD/JPY only marginally below 153. GBP/USD fully erased its post-data bounce while USD/CAD ended slightly firmer. A weaker ISM services index of 49.4 had little impact with prices paid rising to 59.2 from 53.4. Fed’s Bowman expressed hawkish concern on inflation, while the normally dovish Goolsbee described the payroll data as very solid.