Asia Summary and Highlights 28 April

Asia Session

Equities are starting the week on a soft note as the initial euphoria of Trump's positive remark and technical recovery fades. U.S. three major equity indexes are all opening lower, with Chinese and Hong Kong equity indexes treading lower. Japanese equities, on the other hand, seems to be benefiting from news that Toyota maybe planning for a major investment in their part supplier. AUD/USD is trading 0.06% higher at 0.64, NZD/USD is also trading 0.06% higher at 0.5967 while USD/CAD is up 0.05%. 

Japan's vice finance minister for international affairs Mimura denies a media report that U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent prefers stronger JPY. Such headlines has been circulating since the first U.S.-Japan meeting for the trade deal and has been dismissed. We do not see the Japanese government opening suggest FX rates to be one of the leverage in trade deals nor a collaborative intervention. USD/JPY is trading 0.22% lower at 143.32. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.13% and GBP/USD is up 0.05%.

North American session

In a subdued North American session USD/JPY advanced to 144 before correcting to near 143.50 while EUR/USD advanced to near 1.14 before stalling. This saw EUR/JPY rallying from 162.80 to 163.75 before settling still firmer near 163.40. Excluding USD/JPY, the USD was generally slightly softer. 

Canadian retail sales fell by 0.4% as expected but the preliminary indication for March was for a 0.7% gain. April’s final Michigan CSI was revised up to 52.2 from 50.8 but was still down from March’s 57.0. The revision came largely on current conditions and near-term inflation expectations. 6-month expectations on activity and the 5-10 year inflation view saw little change from the preliminary.