Asia Summary and Highlights 23 Feb

Asia Session

On Friday's Asia session, a slate of Fed Speakers emphasized a cautious approach in adjusting monetary policy. Goldman Sachs joined the club to revise their Fed rate forecast to a June cut instead of May. The impact towards the FX market is muted right now with U.S. Treasury Yields staying in the green. USD/JPY is trading 0.06% higher at 150.61 as JGB yields slip. 

The U.S. equity space continue to cheer and neglects Fed speakers push towards a later cut. However, regional equity do not echo as stimulus induced hype fades while Nikkei is reaching for new high in thirty years. AUD/USD is benefiting from broadly positive risk sentiment and is trading 0.14% higher at 0.6566, NZD/USD is also 0.07% higher at 0.6198 while USD/CAD is unchanged. Elsewhere, EUR/USD is up 0.02% and GBP/USD is up 0.01%.

North American session

The USD made general gains through the North American session, benefitting from lower than expected jobless claims data in the latest week, at 201k from 203k, which is more significant than usual as it is the survey week for the employment report. EUR/USD lost around 40 pips to 1.0820, and USD/JPY advanced 40 pips to 150.60. There were similar gains across the board, although GBP slightly outperformed, with EUR/GBP dropping 20 pips to 0.8550.

S and P PMI data showed manufacturing up to 51.7 from 50.7 but services slipping to 51.3 from 52.5. A 3.1% rise in existing home sales to 4.00m was slightly stronger than expected. Fed’s Jefferson warned against excessive easing, a message backed by Harker late in the session.