Asia Summary and Highlights 11 March

Asia Session

After the meeting with U.S. counterpart, Japan Trade Minister Muto received no assurance Japan would be exempt from US tariffs, which is not surprising at all. The January Japan Household spending continue to grow but far less than estimate, pointing to soft private consumption that is shown in the Q4 GDP. USD/JPY is trading 0.09% lower at 147.12 with a session low at 146.54 as yields stays south.

Risk atmosphere remains poor on Tuesday after the bloodbath on Monday. Nikkei is leading the losses, followed by Chinese and Hong Kong equities while U.S. major equity indexes are off session low but remain in the red. AUD/USD is down 0.07% to 0.6275, NZD/USD down 0.13% to 0.5691 while USD/CAD slips 0.07%. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.2% and GBP/USD up 0.12%.

North American session

With no major economic data or news events, plunging equities, with the S and P falling over 3% before a modest late correction, was the story of the session. The commodity currencies saw the biggest response. USD/CAD rose to 1.4440 from 1.4360 while AUD/USD fell to .6280 from .6330. AUD/CAD advanced above .91 early in the session but later reversed.  

USD/JPY saw early losses to a low of 146.64 before recovering to 147.30 as UST yields stabilized at the long end after moderate early losses. EUR/USD rose as high at 1.0875 before slipping to 1.0830. EUR advanced versus both GBP and CHF, leaving the USD broadly firmer.