Choppy End To The Week In Asia

Risk aversion lingered on as regional equity benchmarks tumbled on a negative lead from Wall Street. Commodity-tied FX traded on the back foot, with a bout of risk-off flows and broad-based greenback strength seen as USD/CNH had its first look above CNH6.5000 this lunar year. The rate swung to a loss but G10 FX space remained in a risk-off mode. The PBOC fixed its USD/CNY mid-point at CNY6.4713, just 5 pips above sell side estimates.

• NZD went offered as a spill-over from USD/CNH price action conspired with a speech from RBNZ Gov Orr, who sought to brush away any hawkish interpretations of this week's MPS/remit tweak. BBG trader sources flagged NZD sales by funds exiting core long positions as Orr reiterated the need for prolonged monetary stimulus, signalled potential for deploying a negative OCR if needed and noted that the RBNZ doesn't target house prices. The kiwi knee-jerked lower on the mention of negative interest rates.
• Reported AUD purchases by large exporters helped the currency move away from session lows before it turned its tail again. AUD is the worst G10 performer alongside NOK, with some sizeable AUD/USD option expiries coming up today. A$1.7bn of AUD puts with strikes at $0.7850 will expire at the NY cut, with a A$5.3bn put strike at $0.7900 rolling off as well.
• USD/JPY had a brief look above yesterday's multi-month high before reversing losses, but yesterday's low proved resilient. The pair bounced off there and returned toward neutral levels.
• U.S. personal income/spending, MNI Chicago PMI & final U. of Mich. Sentiment, French GDP (f) & CPI (p), Swedish GDP, trade balance & retail sales as well as Norwegian unemployment take focus on the data front. ECB's Schnabel & Visco and BoE's Haldane & Ramsden are set to speak.