Asia Summary and Highlights 12 Feb
It is a quiet Monday with markets observing Lunar New Year
RBNZ Gov Orr says inflation remains too high, that's why we've kept cash rate at 5.5%
Asia Session
It is a quiet Monday with most Chinese markets observing Lunar New Year. There is little important economic releases nor headline coming out thorough the weekend, maybe except for the Super Bowl. U.S. 3 major equity indexes are barely in the green while USD trading individually against majors. The Kiwi has stood out with losses as we heard RBNZ Gov Orr saying inflation remains too high and "that's why we've kept cash rate at 5.5%". It seems to smash hawkish speculations from ANZ last week and see NZD/USD down 0.3% to 0.6130. AUD/USD fares better to trade 0.1% lower at 0.6518 while USD/CAD rose 0.03%.
U.S. Treasury Yields are higher across the curve and is challenging the year high but seems to have limited impact towards the FX market with Asian market in holiday. USD/JPY is trading 0.01% lower at 149.22. Elsewhere, EUR/USD is up 0.07% and GBP/USD is down 0.01%.
North American session
In a fairly quiet North American session the USD slipped after annual CPI revisions saw few changes, leaving the recent improvement intact. USD/JPY saw a quick dip to 149 probably encouraged by December’s data being revised down, though October and November were revised up and the dips in UST yields, and USD/JPY, largely reversed. EUR and GBP held on to modest gains versus the USD slightly better, though EUR/USD remained below 1.08.
USD/CAD initially fell around 20 pips on stronger headline Canadian employment numbers, but with the details less impressive more than reversed the decline through the session, finishing around 20 pips higher. The USD also fell back modestly the AUD after the data, with those losses being mostly sustained despite the reversal in the CAD gains.