Asia Summary and Highlights 11 July

Asia Session

Regional sentiment is optimistic with HSI leading and Nikkei almost up one percent. U.S. three major equity indexes are little changed as market participants waiting for the U.S. CPI to determine the next leg. The USD is broadly weaker against majors and the Antipodeans are capitalizing on that. AUD/USD is up 0.15% to 0.6758 with consumer inflation expectations remain above 4% at 4.3%. NZD/USD gained more by 0.24% to 0.6097 while USD/CAD rose 0.02%.

Both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields are little changed. USD/JPY is up 2 pips on 161.69 Else, EUR/USD is up 0.06% and GBP/USD is up 0.07%.

North American session

The main move of the session was a bounce in GBP/USD to near 1.2850 from 1.2810 after comments from BoE’s Pill sating the BoE was watching persistence of inflation saw bets on an August easing scaled back. Later in the session BoE’s Mann also expressed concern over inflation. With EUR/USD steady near 1.0825 EUR/GBP slipped to .8430 from .8450, though EUR/CHF was firmer at .9740 after finding support at .9700.

Fed Chairman Powell repeated Tuesday’s Senate testimony to the House generating little response in the Q+A. USD/JPY extended gains to 161.75. USD/CAD saw some slippage from 1.3640 to briefly touch below 1.3610 before correcting. With AUD/USD quiet, AUD/CAD edged lower.