Greenback Gives Away Some Of Its Wednesday's Gains

The greenback retreated from weekly highs registered yesterday, while the yen also struggled. Regional equity benchmarks faltered after another poor session on Wall Street, but U.S. equity index futures crept higher. Most G10 crosses held narrow ranges, as activity and headline flow was limited by market holidays in Singapore, India, Indonesia, Malaysia & the Philippines.

• USD/JPY blipped higher at Tokyo reopen, briefly showing above yesterday's high. The rate struggled to cling onto those modest gains and eased off, with a contact flagging hearsay re: profit taking by Japanese retail accounts. The rate bottomed out at Y109.48, but recovered thereafter and returned to neutral levels.
• BBG trader source pointed to exporters buying AUD/USD in the wake of yesterday's dip. The Aussie failed to hold these gains and sold off, as iron ore futures went offered. The kiwi diverged from its Antipodean cousin and firmed against most G10 peers.
• The PBOC set the central USD/CNY mid-point at CNY6.4612, just 3 pips above sell-side estimates. This comes after considerably larger deviations seen earlier this week, suggesting that China's central bank is happy with the impact of earlier fixings. USD/CNH slipped on the back of broader USD sales.
• Coming up today we have U.S. initial jobless claims & PPI data as well as comments from Fed's Bullard, Waller & Barkin, BoE's Bailey & Cunliffe, BoC's Macklem & ECB's Centeno.