Asia Summary and Highlights 8 August

Asia Session

The USD/JPY remains to be volatile as market participants braces for more BoJ speakers. A member said in the July Bank of Japan Summary of Opinions that neutral rates should be at least 1%, which seems to be driving the early bids in JPY. We also heard from Japan finance minister Suzuki says no comment on BOJ deputy governor Uchida's remarks which seems Uchida was just trying to calm the market rather than a policy tilt. USD/JPY dipped to 145.42 in early Tokyo and is currently trading just 0.45% lower at 146.00 while both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields slips.

RBA Governor Bullock says don't expect to be back in 2-3% target range until end of 2025 and don't see interest rates coming down quickly. The hawkish comment has pushed the Aussie higher as it reassures the market they are unlikely to see any early easing. Regional and U.S. three major equities indexes are trading higher, except Japanese equities. AUD/USD is trading 0.57% higher at 0.6557, NZD/USD rose 0.17% to 0.6605 while USD/CAD slipped 0.18%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.1% and GBP/USD is up 0.03%.

North American session

In a session with little news, a positive start for equities was erased and this saw the riskier currencies slip back from early gains. AUD/USD slipped to .6515 from a high of .6575 and GBP/USD fell back below 1.27.  CAD held up better despite mostly dovish BoC minutes, though did correct to 1.3750 from lows near 1.3720. USD/JPY and EUR/USD were fairly stable near 146.90 and 1.0920 respectively. While EUR/GBP largely eared earlier losses EUR/CHF found support at .94, after slipping from a .9470 high.