Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly weaker against the USD as the greenback is performing strongly in the earlier sessions before NA. The only winner is KRW by 0.03%; the biggest losers are THB 0.59%, MYR & IDR 0.28%, KRW 0.22%, CNY 0.18%, SGD 0.16%, PHP 0.15%, INR 0.14% and CNH by 0.08%.

USD/CNH is trading higher at 7.2884 from 7.2825 previously closed. Onshore spot market is trading higher at 7.2852 from 7.2721 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading higher at 7.1247 compared to 7.1205 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market  is trading higher at 16330 from 16285 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 16355 from 16328 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 87.57 from 87.46 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 87.78 from 87.57 previously closed.

NA Session

The Bank of England eased by 25bps as expected but with two dovish dissents. GBP/USD slipped to a low of 1.2361 while EUR/GBP bounced to a high of .8378 from .8340. However, the moves were gradually erased, with GBP/USD edging higher in a weaker USD environment. EUR/USD gains were modest, stalling ahead of 1.04, leaving EUR/GBP near .8350. USD/JPY fell almost a big figure to trade below 151.50, while USD/CAD tested 1.43 before a modest correction. AUD/CAD was fairly stable after peaking at .90, with AUD/USD up to .6280.  

US data had little impact. Initial claims bounced to a still low 219k from 208k. Q4 non-farm productivity was on consensus at 1.2% but unit labor costs at 3.0% were slightly softer than expectations.