- China’s trade balance plunged in February
- China FX chief uses this data as proof that the Yuan is close to balanced level
- USD/CNY fixed 209 pips above the Friday level, hinting that a band widening may soon occur
- Further RRR reductions also much more likely
- Some analysts still see a chance of further BOJ easing tomorrow
- Irish FinMin confirms that debt restructure negotiations are underway
- Japan February CGPI +0.6% YoY
- Japan core machine orders +3.4% MoM
- Nikkei +0.3%; other regional bourses -0.4% on average
- Gold $1709/oz; Oil $107/bbl
Once again we’ve had a very quiet trading session in Asia with only some mild profit taking in the JPY crosses to show. The higher USD/CNY mid-point Fixd led to buying in other USD/Asia pairs and this washed over into the majors as well.
USD/JPY opened near 82.40 and has traded slightly lower on the session, with AUD/JPY, KRW/JPY and EUR/JPY flows mainly to blame. The previous highs at 81.90 are the first level of support but we didn’t manage to test them. Ranges: 82.09/52
AUD/USD has had a 50 pip range but dealers reported little or no interest. AUD/JPY longs were happy to book profit on the renewed approach towards 87.50 and Sovereign support is still expected near 1.0500 in the AUD/USD; this guaranteed a range trading session. AUD/USD range was 1.0522/75
EUR/USD opened just above 1.3100 and had a very quiet early morning start for a change. Some early Tokyo selling of EUR/JPY sent the EUR/USD back below 1.3100 and set off small stops below 1.3090. There hasn’t been much of a recovery and there has been no sign of any Sovereign buyers this time. Ranges: 1.3082/1.3124
Cable 1.5655/75; EUR/CHF 1.2056/61
