Commodity Currencies Winning So Far

Commodity currencies have been buoyed by a bounce in oil. NZD is the winner so far in the Asia-Pac session, NZD/USD is up around 12 pips. NZ building permits dipped 18.2% M/M in Feb after rising 1.5% over the prior month. The statistic registered the first monthly decline since Jul, with accompanying commentary pointing to "the strong January 2021 month, as well as the timing of multi-unit home projects."

• AUD up around 8 pips, Data earlier in the session showed ANZ Roy Morgan Weekly Consumer Confidence rise 1.7% to 112.3, the highest level since October 2019. David Plank, ANZ's head of Australian economics, said the recovery in confidence came as floods across much of the east coast eased.
• JPY pairs are flat, USD/JPY struggling to break above 109.85 after rallying for four days. Data earlier showed Japanese retail sales rose above expectations at 3.1%, while the unemployment rate dipped to 2.9%, lower than 3.0% estimates. Earlier, Japan's vaccine chief Kono assessed that the initial phase of the rollout "will be very slow" and said that the pace of inoculations probably won't pick up until May, when Japan should be able to vaccinate 10mn people per week.
• Story in FT doing the rounds that the German constitutional court has blocked the ratification of EU recovery fund, ordering the President not to sign the agreement into law until the court has examined the motion bought up by some Eurosceptics. EUR unreactive so far.
• Offshore yuan is weaker again, USD/CNH last up 36 pips at 6.5788, but below Monday's high of 6.5838. Markets await the USD/CNY fix, the PBOC has fixed the yuan stronger than sell side estimates for four of the last five sessions, amid a slide in the yuan. USD/CNH has risen from 6.4788 on March 11 to around 6.58 today.