Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform stronger against the USD as the greenback continue to slip on JPY strength and mixed non farm payroll data. KRW saw the largest gain of 0.84%, followed by PHP 0.47%, MYR 0.46%, THB 0.44%, IDR 0.4%, TWD 0.36%, SGD 0.16%, CNY  0.07% and HKD 0.01%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.2000 compared to the 7.2003 at previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading lower at 7.1873 from 7.1926 previously closed. 12 month NDF diverged from both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 7.0035 compared to 7.0011 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 15590 from 15655 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 15579 from 15634 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is closed. 1 month NDF is trading unchanged at 82.80 from previously closed.

NA Session

The USD finished little changed after initially trading lower after the February employment report. EUR/USD initially traded up above 1.0980, but settled back to opening levels near 1.0940.  USD/JPY also dipped as low as 146.50 before recovering back to 147.10. USD/CAD advanced to near 1.35 after an initial dip to 1.3420 following a strong Canadian employment report. 

February’s non-farm payroll increase of 275k was strong though the upside surprise was offset by 167k of net downward revisions to December and January. Other details are softer, a 0.1% rise in average hourly earnings correcting from January’s above trend 0.5% (revised from 0.6%) and a rise in unemployment to 3.9% from 3.7%. The workweek did however rebound from a weather-related dip in January, and that is positive for activity.

Canada saw a stronger than expected 40.7k increase in February employment with details on balance but not wholly positive. Unemployment nudged up to 5.8% from 5.7% while wage data showed some slowing, if not yet fully convincing. As in the U.S., the case for easing in Canada is building but there is little pressing need to act.