Antipodean Divergence

After rising through the session on Tuesday the greenback has softened slightly in early Asia-Pac trade on Wednesday. Fed's Bullard spoke at the start of the session and said he saw the Fed going ahead with tapering starting in November.

• AUD and NZD have diverged with the former gaining a handful of pips and the latter slipping. The Australian Council of Financial Regulators latest quarterly report said the financial system remains strong while New Zealand reported its highest coronavirus case count in almost a month.
• In Japan the ruling party's leadership election steals the limelight today. The results of the first round of voting will be announced at 14:20 JST. If the runoff vote takes place, its results will be announced at 15:40 JST.
• Offshore yuan is weaker, USD/CNH extending yesterday's gains. Markets continue to digest reports that authorities urges state backed firms to purchase Evergrande assets to support the firm, while markets await an update on an Evergrande coupon payment due today.
• It is a quiet session terms of economic releases in Asia, the highlight is the BoJ Rinban Operations, while later in the day participants can look forward to UK lending data, Eurozone consumer confidence and a speech from Fed's Harker. Later in the day a raft of Central Bank speakers will appear on a policy panel discussion at ECB Forum on Central Banking.