Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD for the greenback sunk on worse than expected NFP that triggered a slide in yields. MYR saw the largest gains of 1.61%, followed by CNH 1.22%, CNY 1.02%, SGD 0.75%, THB 0.7%, KRW 0.62%, PHP 0.42%, IDR 0.22% and HKD 0.09%; the biggest losers are TWD 0.19% and INR 0.03%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.1638 from 7.2513 previously closed. Onshore spot USD/CNY is trading lower at 7.1694 from 7.2450 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 6.9762 compared 7.0413 to previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 16200 from 16237 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 16178 from 16287 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher at 83.75 from 83.73 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 83.87 from 83.81 previously closed.

NA Session

July’s non-farm payroll was weaker than expected with a 114k rise overall, 97k in the private sector, with weak details across the board, 29k in net negative revisions, a 0.2% rise in average hourly earnings, a lower workweek and a surprisingly sharp rise in unemployment, to 4.3% from 4.1%.  

UST yields plunged and the USD instantly sold off, led by USD/JPY which fell from near 149 to near 146.50. EUR/USD rose above 1.09 from 1.0835 and GBP/USD rose above 1.28 from 1.2750. EUR/GBP extended gains to .8520 but EUR/CHF fell to .9375 and EUR/JPY saw lows below 160 from near 161.50 before the US data. With equities falling sharply the commodity currencies struggled to hold on to their initial gains, with USD/CAD and AUD/USD ending little changed.