Asia Summary and Highlights 6 May

Asia Session

USD/JPY tried to retest the 144 figure in early Asia but back off on the first try as USD strength fades on Tuesday's Asia session. The high reached is 144.27, before retracing gains to currently trading 0.03% higher at 143.72, seems to be weighing down by the soft U.S. equities. 

The regional equity market is upbeat on Tuesday with the Chinese equity indexes reopened higher after the May 1 Golden Week. U.S. equities, on the other hand, are weighed by Trump's latest idea of pharmaceutical tariffs.  AUD/USD has a up and down session along with broad USD movement, currently trading at 0.6468, NZD/USD is up 0.27% at 0.5983 while USD/CAD slips 0.06%. It is reported that Carney will be talking with Trump in the U.S. session and could bring significant volaitliy in USD/CAD. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.09% and GBP/USD up 0.04%.

North American session

European markets were quiet given the UK holiday but the USD opened weaker in North America after Trump’s weekend comments announcing tariffs on foreign movies and stating that he had no plans to talk to China this week. However, a stronger ISM services index of 51.6 in April versus 50.8 in March helped the USD move off its lows though the recovery faded late in the session. 

EUR/USD returned to Asian lows near 1.13 from a high of 1.1365 before a modest late bounce to 1.1315. USD/JPY saw only a partial reversal of earlier losses, unable to hold above 144 after bottoming at 143.54. EUR/JPY fell below 163, while EUR/CHF was weaker near .9310. EUR/GBP saw only marginal losses, holding above .85. AUD/USD gains failed to reach .65, but the subsequent correction was modest.