USD/JPY retraced to nudge 157.00 briefly during the session. We had data from Japan today, but the focus was on comments from Kanda, vice-minister for international affairs at Japan's Ministry of Finance (the official who decides when to intervene). Kanda didn’t add much, with little in the way of substantive comments, and he still would not confirm intervention took place on Monday.

News flow otherwise was only light.

We did get plenty of data though. From China we had the two official (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS)) PMIs for April. Both of these fell from March but remained in expansion. Following these was the manufacturing PMI from Caixin/S&P Global, which improved from March. Taken together the three confirmed a continued mild recovery for China’s economy.

From Australia, the focus was on March retail sales, which fell from February and badly missed estimates. Both inflation and population growth is strong so a negative result on this was very poor indeed. While the USD has net gained across the board the AUD was a notable loser.

From New Zealand, ANZ’s business survey showed business confidence dropped to a seven-month low in April. Continued high interest rates and a slow economy are weighing on household spending and company profits.

aud wrap chart 30 April 2024 2