FX Range Trading, Fed Chair Powell Speaks Later

Currencies have generally been in narrow ranges during APAC trading today ahead of Fed Chairman Powell speaking later and Friday’s US payrolls. The BBDXY USD index is off its high early in the session to be down slightly. The rest of the G10 is little changed. USDCNY fixing was close to yesterday’s at 7.0949.

• AUDUSD approached 65c earlier but has rebounded following the slightly better-than expected China Caixin services PMI. It doesn’t seem to be deterred by weaker Asian equities and the pair is currently up 0.1% to 0.6521, close to the intraday high.
• NZDUSD is also close to today’s high at around 0.5974. AUDNZD is steady around 1.0917.
• JPYUSD is unchanged around 151.57. The Jibun Bank services PMI for March was revised down but still higher than February.
• EURUSD is up 0.1% to 1.0778 ahead of preliminary March CPI data released later today. GBPUSD is little changed at 1.2581.
• Asian currencies are also in narrow ranges with USDCNH down slightly to 7.252 and USDIDR up 0.1% to 15918 after Tuesday’s BI intervention. The Korean won is one of the biggest movers with USDKRW down 0.3% to 1348.25.
• Later Fed Chair Powell speaks on the economic outlook and Bostic, Bowman, Goolsbee, Barr and Kugler also appear. On the data front, there are US March services ISM/PMI and ADP employment, and euro area March preliminary CPI (see MNI Euro Area CPI Preview) and February unemployment.