Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform stronger against the USD as the greenback slips on JPY strength and Powell signalling potential easing soon. MYR saw the largest gain of 0.58%, followed by SGD 0.42%, THB 0.33%, IDR 0.3%, KRW 0.26%, CNH and HKD 0.13%, CNY and PHP 0.07%, HKD and INR 0.05%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.2003 compared to the 7.2100 at previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading lower at 7.1926 from 7.1978 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 7.0011 compared to 7.0073 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 15655 from 15705 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 15634 from 15675 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading lower at 82.78 from 82.83 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 82.80 from 82.91 previously closed.

NA Session

The EUR gained ground through the North American session. Initially, EUR/USD dipped slightly following the ECB announcement of unchanged policy, with the statement initially seemingly interpreted as mildly dovish. But even though EUR front end yields stayed lower on the day, EUR/USD rebounded after the initial dip, gaining around 50 pips on the session to near 1.0950. 

The USD was also generally weaker elsewhere, except against the JPY, with USD/JPY rising around 30 pips after dipping below 148 in the European morning.  Fed’s Powell repeated his Wednesday testimony to Senate and stated in the Q+A that the Fed was not far from having the necessary confidence on inflation to ease, though Fed’s Mester in separate remarks sounded more cautious. Data showed unchanged initial claims at 217k but a wider than expected trade deficit for January.