Asia Summary and Highlights 12 Apr

Asia Session

USD/JPY continues to hover above 153 figure, thanks to persistent USD strength and the weakness in Suzuki's rhetoric. On Friday's Asia session, Suzuki did another round of jawboning, "won't rule out any steps to respond to disorderly FX moves" and suggest there is a chance such intervention would be discussed in G20 meeting next week.  Both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields fell and see USD/JPY slipping 0.04% lower at 153.2.

Risk sentiment is mostly calmer with HSI close to closing the opening gap higher. AUD/USD tread lower to 0.6530 by 0.1% while NZD/USD up 0.02% at 0.5997 and USD/CAD rose 0.12% to 1.3704 as oil retrace earlier gains. Else, EUR/USD is down 0.12% and GBP/USD is down 0.09%.

North American session

The USD ended little changed after a choppy session. The EUR saw a modest dip on the ECB announcement of unchanged policy, with the statement suggesting that it could be appropriate to reduce the current level of policy restriction, and dropping language about maintaining rates for a sufficiently long time. EUR/USD fell around 15 pips though EUR/CHF fell 40 pips to .9750.

The EUR/USD dip was soon more than reversed as the USD slipped on a modest 0.2% rise in March’s PPI, both in the headline and core rates, even with initial claims lower at 211k from 222k. USD strength subsequently resumed, probably supported by what was generally hawkish Fed talk, most clearly from Barkin, with Williams earlier and Collins later more balanced, though still disappointed with recent CPI data. EUR/USD fell from a high of 1.0757 to touch 1.07 before recovering to mid-range as equities built gains. 

The USD ended slightly firmer versus the JPY but slightly weaker versus the AUD and GBP. USD/CAD ended little changed. USD/CHF ended weaker as the CHF largely sustained its post-ECB gains.