Asia Summary and Highlights 13 January

Asia Session

The JPY is gaining on a Japanese holiday as haven bids seems to have picked up on sour global sentiment as market participants in Asia digest the stronger than expected U.S. NFP. While regional sentiment is worse than U.S. major, Chinese equities are trying to close the opening losses but have backed away in Asia noon. USD/JPY is down 0.13% at 157.49.

The Australian Melbourne Institute Inflation data has came in higher at  0.6% m/m and 2.6% y/y. It previews a potential higher December official CPI and seems to reversing the early easing expectation from the lower November CPI.  But as session progress, AUD/USD has reversed earlier gains to trade 0.1% lower at 0.6140, NZD/USD is unchanged at 0.5555 while USD/CAD rose 0.14% on broad USD strength. Else, EUR/USD down 0.23% AND GBP/USD is down 0.5%.

\North American session

A significantly stronger than expected 256k increase in US non-farm payrolls saw the USD bounce by around 0.5% across the board, though USD/CAD was an exception with a proportionately even stronger 92k increase in Canadian employment seeing an initial bounce quickly erased and more. The USD largely sustained its gains against EUR, GBP and AUD, with EUR/USD falling below 1.0250 from above 1.03, and GBP/USD near 1.22 from above 1.23. 

However, with equities under pressure, particularly after January Michigan CSI data showed a rise in the 5-10 year inflation expectation to 3.3% from 3.0%, USD/JPY more than fully erased its initial bounce and settled near pre-data levels slightly below 158. The dip in USD/CAD also found buyers, moving to around 1.4430 compared with pre-data levels near 1.4410.