Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD as the greenback slumped on weaker than expected U.S. CPI. KRW saw the largest gains of 0.85%, followed by SGD 0.45%, THB 0.36%, CNH 0.34%, IDR 0.28%, MYR 0.26%, CNY and TWD 0.25%, PHP and HKD 0.05%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.2677 from 7.2924 previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading lower at 7.2579 than 7.2761 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 7.0685 compared 7.0863 to previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 16195 from 16241 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 16113 from 16215 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 83.56 from 83.53 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 83.59 than 83.58 previously closed.

NA Session

US CPI came in weaker than expected at -0.1% with the ex food and energy rate up only 0.1% and 0.065% before rounding. The USD fell sharply on the release most notably USD/JPY which plunged to a low of 157.44 from around 161.60 and remained below 159 even as the USD moved off its lows. EUR/USD saw a high of 1.09 from 1.0845 ahead of the data but drifted back to 1.0865. EUR slipped marginally versus the GBP while EUR/CHF slipped as low as .9710 from .9750, but erased most of its losses in late trade.

Equities slipped putting pressure on the commodity currencies. AUD/USD and USD/CAD both ended little changed with the latter fully erasing its reaction to the US data, AUD/USD finding sellers at .68.

Initial claims were overshadowed by the CPI but were lower than expected at 222k from 239k. Later in the session Fed’s Muslaem and Daly welcomed the CPI but gave no hints that a near term easing was being considered.