Asia Summary and Highlights 2 May
China says the US has sought to begin trade talks and is thinking about it
Japan March unemployment rate 2.5%
Asia Session
The U.S. major equities have reverted the Thursday's losses in early Asia session as Chinese remark sparks hope. China says that the US has sought to begin trade talks and is thinking about it, a first positive sign of de-escalation between U.S. and China. Hong Kong equities are also trading higher. AUD/USD is trading 0.46% higher at 0.6413, NZD/USD is also0.44% higher at 0.5932 while USD/CAD slipped 0.24%.
Early optimism has sent USD/JPY higher to 145.92. The March Japan unemployment rate has edged slightly higher to 2.5% from 2.4%, confirming BoJ's take on potential medium term labor shortage but it is unlikely to capture market participants' eye for now. As session progress, JGB are still performing slightly better than U.S. Treasury Yields and see USD/JPY revert to unchanged at 145.32. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.22% and GBP/USD is up 0.28%.
North American session
The USD took a brief hit when initial claims rose to 241k from 223k but this was quickly reversed with the rise seen largely due to an Easter break in New York schools. The USD saw a more sustained bounce when the April ISM manufacturing index of 48.7 from 49.0 proved more resilient than expected. A small rise in prices paid to 69.8 from 69.4 added to the sense of relief.
USD/JPY rose a big figure to 145.60. EUR/USD fell to 1.1290 from 1.1315. EUR/GBP was little changed near .85 but EUR/CHF was stronger near .9385. USD/CAD bounced to 1.3850 from 1.38 but AUD/USD swas little changed near .6390.