Asia Summary and Highlights 20 August

Asia session

USD/JPY has swung by more than a figure on Tuesday's Asia session with little headline nor economics release. The early dip in JPY pairs seems to be flow related as we see other majors little affected and approaching Asia noon there comes the USD bids. USD is trading broadly stronger against majors with U.S. Treasury Yields higher in the back end. USD/JPY is trading 0.23% higher at 146.90 after testing a session low of 145.85.

The RBA August meeting minutes show its member considered a rate hike but decided holding is better. Given the current inflationary dynamics, they see rates need to be at current level for longer but they are also reassessing such in every meeting. In short, untill we see a moderation of CPI towards 3%, there will not be a rate cut. The AUD/USD was not supported by such as it is already the consensus for the market. The push back for more tightening and the soft regional risk sentiment have pushed AUD/USD 0.21% lower at 0.6718, NZD/USD fared better to trade 0.09% higher at 0.6120 while USD/CAD is unchanged. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.06% and GBP/USD is down 0.07%.