Asia Summary and Highlights 9 August
Relatively quiet Friday with USD reversed early losses
Asia Session
Without the presence of BoJ speakers, USD/JPY originally rose on follow through overall momentum. As session progress, early gains of USD dissipates broadly. USD/JPY is trading at 147.19 after testing session high at 147.81.
Market sentiment is broadly positive on Friday. Regional equities are outperforming U.S. three major equity indexes. Regional sentiment seems to be faring better after July Chinese CPI coming in stronger than June and beats estimate. also suggest improving Chinese consumer sentiment. The Kiwi is leading majors against the USD to trade 0.22% higher at 0.6027, AUD/USD is trading higher at 0.6594 while USD/CAD slips to 1.3732. Else, EUR/USD is trading at 1.0921 and GBP/USD is trading higher at 1.2755.
North American session
US initial claims slipped to 233k from 250k, and while the 4-week average continues to increase the lower than expected data eased fears generated by Friday’s employment report and sent UST yields and equities higher.
USD/JPY moved above 147 from near 146 while USD/CHF rose to .8655 to .8560. EUR/USD slipped below 1.09 from 1.0930 on the data but recovered to around 1.0915, meaning that EUR/CHF advanced to .9450 from .9360.
Risk sensitive-currencies benefited from the equity bounce, with GBP/USD rising to near 1.2750 after dipping below 1.27 on the data, as EUR/GBP fell to .8665 from .8610. AUD/USD advanced to .6590 from .6550 and with USD/CAD remaining above European lows AUD/CAD rose to near .9050 from .90.