Antipodean Divergence

Widespread holidays in Europe and Asia kept liquidity thin throughout the session in Asia, with little in the way of news flow to drive price action. The greenback softened slightly, giving back some of its post-NFP gains; the US economy gained 916k jobs in March, the most in seven months, and came alongside an upward revision to the February data.

• AUD was the outperformer, around 13 pips higher at 0.7621 ahead of the RBA meeting this week. NZD is bottom of the G10 pile so far, dropping after holding its ground on Friday.
• The yen has gained a handful of pips in Asia, USD/JPY last down 15 pips at 110.55. Japan Jibun Bank March Final Services PMI, the figure came in at 48.3 from 46.5 previously. Combined with the manufacturing PMI of 52.7 released last week, this brings the composite PMI to 49.9
• The yuan is slightly weaker, but broadly unchanged from Friday, USD/CNH last up 5 pips at 6.5775. There were reports over the weekend that the PBOC has asked lenders to reduce credit supply in order to cool the property boom amid concerns over asset bubbles. Chinese markets are closed for a holiday.