Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies are trading mostly weaker against the greenback as market sentiment already turned sour before the weekend Iran strikes. The biggest losers are KRW by 0.47%, CNH 0.26%, CNY 0.22%, THB 0.14%, IDR 0.10%, MYR & SGD 0.09%, INR 0.07% and PHP 0.06%.

USD/CNH is trading higher at 6.8625 from 6.8444 previously closed. Onshore spot market is trading higher at 6.8621 from 6.8455 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading higher at 6.7383 from 6.7212 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading higher at 16787 from 16759 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 16803 from 16766 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 90.97 from 90.91 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 91.32 from 91.24 previously closed.

NA Session

The USD recovered from an early dip in the European morning and saw a modest bounce on a strong US PPI, up 0.5% in January, 0.8% ex food and energy, though the gain ex food, energy and trade of 0.3% was relatively moderate. The USD bounce was however not sustained, even with a strong February Chicago PMI index of 57.1 from 54.0 hinting at firmer ISM manufacturing data on Monday. UST yields turned lower in the afternoon, EUR/USD rising to 1.1825 after briefly dipping below 1.18 on the PPI data. USD/JPY was stable near 156.

Domestic political risk weighed on the GBP but GBP/USD reversed most of its losses in the North American afternoon , recovering to near 1.35, while EUR/GBP corrected to near .8765 after rallying to .8790 from .8750. Q4 Canadian GDP was weaker than expected at -0.6% annualized but details were mixed and the data had little sustained impact. With oil firm on Iran tensions USD/CAD fell to 1.3630 from 1.3680 while risk off sentiment saw EUR/CHF fall .9080 from .9120. AUD/USD recovered from a brief dip below .71, to .7120.