October 01, 2024 04:06 GMT
FOREX: Yen & NZD Lose Ground, A$ Outperformance Aided By Retail Sales Beat
FOREX
The USD is firmer against JPY and NZD as the Tuesday session unfolds. Both currencies are down around 0.45% against the USD at this stage. The USD BBDXY index is slightly higher last near 1223.5.
- USD/JPY has spent most of the session tracking higher, the pair last 144.25/30, just off session highs (144.33). Whilst we are still comfortably below intra-session highs from Friday (146.49), it is still an impressive rebound from yesterday's lows at 141.65.
- Today's data pointed to a resilient economic backdrop, with the unemployment rate edging down, while the Q3 Tankan survey painted a positive outlook. The BoJ Summary Of Opinions from the September meeting didn't suggest there was any need to rush further rate hikes, with the central bank stating that CPI trends, wages and US developments are key watch points.
- This backdrop has weighed on yen at the margins, whilst onshore equity gains and a tick up in US equity futures have been other yen headwinds. US yields sit close to unchanged at this stage.
- NZD/USD has faltered back to 0.6325. Local bank BNZ calling for a 50bps cut in light of the softer NZIER survey figures earlier today.
- AUD/USD has outperformed, aided by a retail sales data beat, which has weighed on RBA easing expectations into 2025, albeit at the margin. The pair got to highs of 0.6935, but sits back at 0.6915 in latest dealings.
- Looking ahead, we have final EU PMI reads for September, as well as CPI as well. In the US it is the ISM print and the JOLTS job openings data.
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