Asia Summary and Highlights 18 Apr

Asia Session

Kanda says Japan is in talks on FX and other issues with US & others and G7 reconfirmed commitment on forex stance put forward by Japan after attending the G20 meeting. While BoJ's Noguchi says it is essential for BoJ to maintain ultra-loose monetary policy, it is the lack of strength in the rhetoric that have dissipated the impact of verbal intervening and reverse the early bids for JPY.  As USD/JPY goes higher and higher, it seems Kanda is getting serious to at least stall the weakness in JPY. USD/JPY is down 0.08% to 154.26 with both the U.S. Treasury and JGB yields losing.

The Australian March labor report is mixed with unemployment rate beating estimate at 3.8% but headline employment change is negative and participation rate slipped. The positive side is full time employment increased and the Australia labor market is still tight. Risk sentiment is broadly positive and commodities solid. This supported the AUD/USD and see it trading 0.28% higher at 0.6453, NZD/USD is 0.13% higher at 0.5924 while USD/CAD slipped 0.15% with oil's losses paused. Else, EUR/USD is up 0.06% and GBP/USD is 0.11% higher.

North American session

There was little news in the US, with the Fed’s Beige Book similar in tone to the last report. However UST yields saw a significant slide, and this weighed on the USD. USD/JPY slipped to 154.35 from 154.65 while EUR/USD rose to 1.0670 from 1.0640. The USD also slipped versus AUD and CAD. 

GBP underperformed, with BoE Governor Bailey seeing the latest inflation data as in line with BoE forecasts and expecting a strong drop in inflation next month. EUR/GBP more than reversed European losses to touch .8570 while GBP/USD was little changed near 1.2450.