Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD as the global market recovers from the auto tariff's initial impact in the Asia and Europe session. The biggest winners are PHP by 0.51%, followed by KRW 0.2%, CNH 0.16%, THB 0.13%, IDR 0.12%, CNY & SGD 0.08% and HKD 0.01%; while the largest losers are INR 0.08%, MYR 0.06% and TWD 0.04%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.2680 from 7.2796 previously closed. Onshore spot market is trading lower at 7.2622 from 7.2683 from previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 7.0907 compared to 7.0970 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 16560 from 16580 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 16610 from 16648 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading lower at 85.78 from 86.71 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 85.92 from 86.10 previously closed.

NA Session

USD/JPY advanced to near 151 in Europe and marginally extended the move in North America, quickly rebounding from a brief dip as early gains in equities lost momentum. USD/CAD rose above 1.43 from a low of 1.4260. EUR/USD extended gains from near 1.0750 above 1.08 as equities lost ground before stabilizing near the figure. GBP/USD gains from near 1.29 peaked below 1.30. AUD/USD was fairly stable. 

Focus was on trade tensions and US data, even trade, had little impact. February’s advance goods trade deficit corrected to $147.9bn from $155.6bn in January, but was significantly wider than expected. Initial claims at 224k from 225k remain low. Q4 GDP was revised up to 2.4% from 2.3% but core PCE prices were revised down to 2.6% from 2.7%. Later February penning home sales recovered by 2.0% after a 4.6% January decline.