Asia Summary and Highlights 18 November

Asia Session

Bank of Japan Governor Ueda has given a speech and so far market participants have disappointed by the lack of direct cues of an imminent hike. However, they seems to have under read the weight of his comment on driver of Japan's inflation shifting towards rise in domestic wages, which is the critical inspect for further BoJ tightening. USD/JPY jumped to 155.13 before retracing to 154.52, to trade 0.16% higher for the session.

Regional sentiment is upbeat so far on Monday while U.S. three major equity indexes performing individually with the USD performing mostly stronger against peers. Yet, the Aussie benefited from the upbeat sentiment and is trading 0.18% higher at 0.6473, NZD/USD is down 0.1% to 0.5861 while USD/CAD also slipped 0.05 on higher oil. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.03% and GBP/USD up 0.11%.

North American session

October US retail sales were in line with expectations with a 0.4% rise, 0.1% ex autos, but with September revised higher. November’s Empire State manufacturing survey was strong at 31.2. October industrial production was as expected with a 0.3% decline, fully due to the Boeing strike and hurricanes. 

On balance the data was healthy and EUR/USD fully reversed earlier gains, falling back to 1.0525. EUR/GBP was marginally firmer but EUR/CHF slipped to 0.935o from 0.9390. USD/JPY ignored the data and later resumed its slide, eventually finding a base at 154. AUD/USD slipped after the data to .6450 while USD/CAD advanced to near 1.41.