Asia Open - Overnight Highlights

EMERGING ASIA

EM currencies perform mostly stronger against the USD as USD moderates on the last trading day of the week. The biggest winners are PHP by 0.53%, followed by SGD 0.32%, CNY 0.29%, TWD, KRW and CNH 0.27%, IDR 0.19%, THB 0.17%, HKD 0.04%.

USD/CNH is trading lower at 7.1181 from 7.1370 previously closed. Onshore spot market is trading lower at 7.1023 from 7.1230 previously closed. 12 month NDF followed both the on/offshore market and is trading lower at 6.9385 compared to 6.9571 previously closed.

USD/IDR spot market is trading lower at 15481 from 15507 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading lower at 15498 from 15544 previously closed.

USD/INR onshore spot market is trading higher  at 84.07 from 84.06 previously closed. 1 month NDF is trading higher at 84.19 from 84.18 previously closed.

North America Session

US housing starts were near consensus with a 0.5% decline to 1354k but permits were weaker than expected falling by 2.9% to 1428k. This saw the USD slip versus JPY and EUR with losses extending later in the session, USD/JPY falling to 149.50 from 150, and EUR/USD rising to 1.0865 from 1.0850. With GBP/USD more stable EUR/GBP fully reversed European losses rising to .8330. While the USD was generally softer with oil slipping the USD edged higher versus the commodity currencies, USD/CAD moving above 1.38 and AUD/USD falling to .67.