Asia Summary and Highlights 21 Dec

Asia Session

The Japanese Cabinet's report showed an upward revision of economics growth projection citing external demand to offset soft domestic demand, which is expected to recover on income tax cut and stronger wage inflation. The report also forecast CPI to be above 2% in the coming year with wage inflation expected to grow by 2.5%. The upward revision supports the JPY and see USD/JPY slipped 0.37% to 143.02 with both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields rebound.

Regional equities are performing individually with little clear direction in the equity space as the calendar is so far quiet and market participants getting ready for Christmas. Elsewhere, AUD/USD led the gains with 0.24%, followed by USD/CAD slipping 0.13%, EUR/USD up 0.07% while NZD/USD is unchanged and GBP/USD is down 0.07%.

North American session
The USD saw some early slippage with stronger than expected consumer confidence and existing home sales data getting little response but picked up later as equities turned negative. EUR/USD rose from 1.0935 to 1.0970 before falling back below 1.0950. EUR/GBP held near .8650. 
USD/JPY advances stalled ahead of 147. USD/CAD saw a low of 1.3312 shortly after the release of BoC minutes, which saw concern over the resilience of shelter inflation but reversed course as equites slipped, which also saw AUD/USD weaker.