Asia Summary and Highlights 15 May

Asia Session

The April Australian labor data has come in significantly stronger than expected. Not only headline employment change is a beat of +89k, the participation rate of 67.1% is historic high with no change to unemployment rate of 4.1%. It will further reduce speculation of an imminent cut from the RBA after Wednesday stronger Wage Price Index. AUD/USD is trading 0.05% higher at 0.6431, NZD/USD is down 0.08% at 0.5893 while USD/CAD slips 0.09%. Oil is lower more than a dollar on Iran's signal on readiness to sign a nuclear deal if sanction is to be lifted. market thinks there will soon be more oil supply in the market.

10yr JGB yields is quickly approaching 1.5%, a level last seen in early April. The broad equity market is soft with Nikkei down more than a percent while U.S. Treasury yields are also in the red. USD/JPY is trading 0.49% lower at 146.02. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.14% and GBP/USD is up 0.09%.

North American session

The USD reversed its European losses, led by rising UST yields. There was little news, other than a Bloomberg report that the US was not seeking to weaken the USD in trade negotiations, which saw USD/JPY briefly above 147.  Elsewhere the USD fully erased European losses, EUR/USD falling to 1.1170, even with EUR/CHF and EUR/GBP firmer. The strongest USD gains came against the commodity currencies, USD/CAD rising to 1.3975 after bottoming near 1.39 and AUD/USD falling to .6425 after peaking near .65. Equities saw little movement.