Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly weaker against the USD as the risk sentiment retreats after major equity indexes in U.S. closed at historic high on Thursday. KRW saw the largest losses of 1.19%, followed by THB 0.88%, IDR 0.76%, CNH 0.75%, PHP 0.45%, MYR 0.44%, CNY 0.41%, TWD 0.39%, SGD 0.35% and INR 0.33%.

USD/CNH is trading higher at 7.2761 compared to the 7.2216 at previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading higher at 7.2292 from 7.1995 previously closed. 12 month NDF diverged from both the on/offshore market and is trading lower  at 7.0605 compared to 7.0080 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading higher at 15783 from 15669 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 15823 from 15722 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 83.42 from 83.15 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 83.70 from 83.29 previously closed.

NA Session

The USD saw some early losses, particularly versus the JPY, as UST yields dipped, though generally took on a firmer tone. USD/JPY skipped to 151 from 151.60 before gradually reversing most of the dip. GBP/USD moved off its lows as EUR/GBP found sellers at .86. EUR/USD was heavy, drifting down to test 1.08, while EUR/CHF slipped to .9710 from .9750. 

Comments from Fed’s Powell did not touch on monetary policy. The only data release was a 0.3% dip in Canadian retail sales which masked gains ex autos and in real terms. Despite the not-so-weak data, USD/CAD moved above 1.36 as oil slipped, while AUD/USD kept to a tight range just above .65.