Caution Prevails As U.S. Counts Votes

The ongoing vote count in some battleground states provided the main highlight of the Asia-Pac session. While underlying trends are still favouring Biden, the razor-thin margins & suggestions that Georgia can be impossible to call for weeks inspired a degree of caution, generating a tailwind for USD, JPY & CHF.

• AUD, CAD & NOK underperformed in G10 FX space. The Aussie dipped in early trade, seemingly dragged lower by profit-taking activity in the wake of yesterday's surge. Reports pointing to escalating Sino-Australian tensions didn't help the Aussie either. The RBA's latest SoMP offered little new insight.
• NZD was the odd one out among commodity-tied FX, remaining the best G10 performer. There was little in the way of local news/data flow to underpin the kiwi's outperformance, with cross flows driven by the sinking AUD/NZD & positioning ahead of next week's RBNZ decision likely in play. NZD/USD trades just a handful of pips from YtD highs.
• A modest round of USD/CNH sales prompted the rate to print fresh cycle lows and attack key support at CNH6.0004/00 in early trade. Rejection of those levels was followed by a bounce into positive territory. USD/CNY was pushed higher by a softer than expected PBoC fix, which nonetheless saw the central USD/CNY mid-point moved to its 28-month low.
• U.S. NFP report, Canadian jobs data, German & Norwegian industrial outputs, Italian retail sales and comments from BoC's Macklem & ECB's Holzmann take focus today.