Data Awaited

Taiwan dollar is slightly stronger in early trade, USD/TWD last down 0.31 at 27.897 after the pair dropped on Friday. The rate is still some way off recent lows of 27.7415 on May 10.

• Bank of America is positive on TWD and notes equity outflows are small compared to peers, despite the recent drop in the Taiex: "TWD, the outperformance is consistent with our view of increasing US policy pressure and supportive current account. However, the actual vs. estimated gap heightens the FX risk if FII equity outflows accelerate. This is in contrast to KRW, where equity outflows have been sizeable relative to Taiwan explaining why KRW is the biggest underperformer."
• Taiwan reported 353 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, up from 287 on Saturday. Officials made the decision to revise up the number of reported COVID-19 cases late last week, adding a total 570 infections that had been subject to testing delays, which cast doubt on the efficacy of the reported numbers. Health Minister said Saturday that the situation in Taiwan is "stable" and the rate of positive cases as a percentage of tests is decelerating. There is no current need to impose a harder lockdown if Taiwanese people cooperate to fight the pandemic he noted.
• Markets look ahead to industrial production and employment data at 0900BST/1600HKT.