Asia Summary and Highlights 11 Mar
The IEA is weighing a record oil reserve release to calm markets after Hormuz disruption
Asia Session
The broad risk sentiment continues to improve on Wednesday with U.S. major equity indexes outperforms regional, excluding Japan. RBA Deputy Governor Hauser warns oil price risks could intensify rate rise debate, sparks speculation of an imminent rate hike next week. AUD/USD is trading 0.89% higher at 0.7182, NZD/USD also 0.29% higher at 0.5946 while USD/CAD slips 0.15%.
The Wednesday Asia session is calm, compared to previous volatile sessions. We continue to have headlines crossing the wires on oil reserve release from the IEA and possible reports of attack on ship in the Strait of Hormuz. Yet, the calmer sentiment is seeing oil to further drop by another few dollars. USD/JPY is trading 0.11% higher at 158.20. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.19% and GBP/USD is up 0.29%.
European and North American sessions
For most of the session hopes for a swift end to the Middle East conflict persisted. However late in the session oil corrected off sub $80 lows after a report that the US navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz proved false. A 1.7% rise in February US existing home sales to 4.09m was stronger than expected but had little impact.
The USD lost ground in the European morning before stabilizing through most of North America, with a late bounce on the denial of the tanker story leaving the USD little changed overall. AUD/USD was particularly firm even with a late correction, rising to .7125 from .7060 while AUD/CAD saw highs above .97 with USD/CAD relatively stable. USD/JPY saw a late break above 158 after earlier bottoming at 157.28. EUR/USD was little changed near 1.1615 after peaking at 1.1667. EUR/GBP was fairly stable.