Meandering Through Mid-Week

A pretty non-descript Asia-Pac session for the FX space, with little in the way of notable headline flow or clear market direction evident.• Some focus fell on the well documented round of Antipodean bond syndications, which should have generated decent foreign demand.

• USD/CNH had a look below CNH6.9000, although bears failed to force a test of the Aug 21 low at CNH6.8936, before the cross edged back above the figure. Recent hard-line rhetoric from U.S. President Trump re: China has been deemed to be electioneering, with warmer trade tones evident over the last 24 hours (although, we should note that China needs to source its grains from abroad given the projected crop deficit forecasts evident over the coming years). Also worth noting that today's USD/CNY fix represented the lowest mid-point setting seen since January.
• The continued monitoring of the local COVID-19 backdrop by policymakers, alongside caution ahead of tomorrow's BoK decision (which will likely result in a downgrade to the Bank's immediate growth outlook) are combining to limit the KRW today.
• Focus Wednesday turns to prelim U.S. durable goods data for July, as well as Mexican GDP and South African CPI figures. ECB's Kazimir & Schnabel, BoC's Wilkins, Fed's Barkin and BoE's Haldane are all due to speak.