- This month’s unofficial PMI shows a slight improvement in the Chinese manufacturing PMI, but still below 50.0 signifying contraction
- China sets USD/CNY at new record low of 6.2670, no coincidence that US talks are about to begin
- Japan total cash earnings +1.3% YoY
- Fed’s Plosser: May need to start gradual tightening before end 2014
- Fed’s Lacker: Tightening should be linked to growth, not jobs
- Fed’s Lockhart, Evans: Fragile, uncertain US economy
- ANZ bank reports bumper profit, raising chances that full 50bps rate cut will be passed on to consumers
- HK and Seoul +0.85%; Nikkei and Sydney flat. Gold $1662/oz; Oil $106.25/bbl
Another very quiet session in Asia even though some centres made a brief return from Golden week celebrations.
The HSBC China PMI was the main risk event and it came in slightly better than expected which has improved risk sentiment slightly and led to some mild short-covering in the AUD crosses in particular.
AUD/USD had a subdued session after the excitement of yesterday afternoon. The pair opened near 1.0330 and has edged higher in fairly quiet trade. There was some speculation of a poor HSBC PMI number which may have encouraged uintraday shorts but they were quickly covered after the actual event. Ranges: 1.0321/51
EUR/USD tried to break lower in early trade as dealers targeted stops below 1.3200 in quiet trading conditions. They were unable to generate the necessary momentum and EUR/USD is back where it started after a range of 1.3208/41
USD/JPY has only had a 20 pip trading range despite another two days of holidays looming on Thursday and Friday. There was some mild demand for USD/JPY at the Tokyo fix but the 80.05/27 range tells its own story.
Cable 1.6216/34; EUR/CHF 1.2010/17
