ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: Reverberations from the US CPI report in Japan, China |
[ad_1]
The
March US CPI report came in higher than expected, rocking markets
during US hours. Reverberation continued here during Asia today.
USD/JPY had climbed above 153.00 in late US trade and it was sitting
just below the big figure as Japan became active. We had verbal
intervention aimed at supporting the yen from Japan’s Vice Finance
Minister for International Affairs Kanda, from Japan’s Finance
Minister Suzuki, and from chief cabinet secretary Hayashi. USD/JPY
has dribbled a little lower, to around 152.80. The statements we had
from these officials were not overly aggressive and didn’t hint at
any imminent actual yen-buying intervention. The next step should be
a raising of the aggressiveness of commentary, followed by ‘rate
checks’ and then actual intervention.
Also
of note today in response to market moves was the reference rate
setting for USD/CNY from the People’s Bank of China. The PBOC
set
the USD/CNY central rate a whopping 1654
pips stronger (for
CNY)
than the
Reuters
estimate. This
is the biggest discrepancy ever, with records back to 2018. The
People’s Bank of China is set on not letting the yuan devalue. I
posted (in the bullets above) my “Refresher on the bind the PBoC is
in on the weak yuan – don’t want to trigger a crash”.
Also
from China today we had very soft inflation data. Consumer
prices barely increased from a year earlier and the
PPI showed that industrial
prices continued to slump. There
is still ongoing deflationary
pressures in
China’s economy.
Major
FX rates are little net changed on the session here. Traders are now
awaiting the European Central Bank meeting, where no change is
the wide expectation.
Regional equities followed Wall Street’s lead lower.
Oil prices remained bouyed by fears of Iran retaliation.
[ad_2]
This article was originally published by a www.forexlive.com . Read the Original article here. .