Little to distract from trade ire -With.......>

FOREX: Little to distract from trade ire

-With little tier 1 data and few impactful speakers, Wednesday was another

session of markets treading water, with the hesitance of markets typified by an

MNI story citing Chinese government advisers as saying China will make no more

concessions to the US in order to secure any 'phase one' deal. CNH remained

offered throughout the day, which bled well into commodity-tied and high beta

currencies. AUD, NZD and CAD were the poorest performers in G10.

-The greenback was one of the better performers thanks to mid-session bump

higher in USD/JPY. A pullback in Treasuries helped elicit some yield interest in

the dollar, helping the USD index once again test (but not break) the 98.052

100-dma.

-US Philly Fed, weekly jobless claims and existing home sales are the data

highlights Thursday. The speaker slate is slightly more interesting, with

comments due from ECB's Mersch and de Guindos as well as Fed's Mester and

Kashkari. The South African central bank rate decision is also on the docket,

with outside expectations of a rate cut.