- Yesterday’s rumours proved well-founded with China CPI coming in at 4.9%, with 5.3% expected
- Changes to food weightings probably had major impact
- PPI came in higher than expected at 6.6%
- RBA minutes said that restrictive policy was still appropriate
- Japanese industrial output 3.3% MoM
- BoJ raises economic assessment
- Regional bourses showed mixed results with Nikkei +0.3% and HK -0.5%
- Gold $1365/oz
Fairly quiet session all round with the USD losing a small piece of ground but holding steady against the JPY.
EUR/USD had weakened overnight on talk that the German bank West LB might again be in some strife but these fears lessened and were pretty much abated by the time Asia stepped in. We have seen a slow continuation of the rally which started at 1.3430 in NY with the pair trading to 1.3528 after closing in NY at 1.3485. Ranges: 1.3478/1.3528, EUR/CHF 1.3078/1.3104
The AUD/USD had some significant risk events today starting with the RBA minutes (which were as expected) and also the Chinese CPI (which was lower than expected but exactly as rumoured). The end effect was a mildly bullish session for the AUD/USD inside a 1.0020/57 range.
USD/JPY has been steady inside an 83.20/44 range.
Cable traded 1.6025/61 and EUR/GBP .8409/23.
