Two Fed officials spoke during the session here today. Mester and Bowman both warned of inflation not yet at a point where the Fed can cut. Mester wants to see more certainty on the trajectory lower while Bowman went as far as to say that while current monetary policy is restrictive, time will tell if it is "sufficiently" restrictive. A hawkish comment.

Australian jobs data was the next significant event, showing a tick higher for unemployment, though smaller than expected. The labour market remains tight, but its loosening a touch. The data today will not rush the RBA into a rate cut. The Bank remains very focused on getting the CPI back to target and there is still a ways to go.

AUD and NZD drew a few bids today, a stable yuan didn’t hurt. EUR, CHF, CAD and GBP are also slightly higher against the USD.

From Japan we heard more on efforts with the US, South Korea, and others, to address the super strong US dollar that is so impacting JPY, KRW and others. Japan's Finance Ministry's Vice Finance Minister for International Affairs Kanda, the official who will instruct the BOJ to intervene when he judges it necessary, crossed the wires with numerous comments aimed at supporting the yen. At one stage USD/JPY touched lows back (just) under 154.00, but only briefly. As I post its around 154.26 and not a lot net changed on the session.

Bank of Japan board member Noguchi spoke.

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