Asia Summary and Highlights 7 Jul
Risk asset opened higher and chopped lower on Trump's tariff comment
Japan Labor cash earning growth disappoints in May
Asia Session
Over the weekend, we have renewed geopolitical tension around the red sea, OPEC increasing oil output and Trump's "unofficial" extension of tariff negotiation. market reacted by opening bids of risk asset and offering oil. As session progress, Trump's remark "Any Country aligning themselves with the Anti-American policies of BRICS will be charged additional 10% tariffs", cooled market optimism. U.S. major equity indexes are still higher than Friday's close while regional equities are in the red. AUD/USD is down 0.58% lower at 0.6516, NZD/USD is down 0.69% to 0.6016 while USD/CAD rise 0.19%.
Labor cash earning growth disappoints in May as it only grew 1% y/y, citing a big fall in bonus. With real wage staying negative, the rebound of household spending last month may not be sustained. We will have to and see if it is the impact from U.S. Japan trade uncertainty and could worry the BoJ. USD opened mostly lower and see USD/JPY trading 0.21% higher than Friday's close at 144.81 currently. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.03% and GBP/USD is down 0.16%. Major currency pairs have tried to close their opening gap and succeeded at least once.