Moves Into Positive Territory

USD/TWD is just breaching negative territory after opening higher. TWD could come under pressure today amid negative risk sentiment, some of the recent strength has been attributed to equity inflows, foreigners bought $112.62m yesterday, but the Taiex is down almost 1% so far today.

• Taiwan reported a total 304 cases yesterday the government also announced tighter social distancing measures including limiting restaurants to takeaway only, closing places of worship and imposing measures on public gatherings such as weddings and funerals.
• Elsewhere, the government announced it would begin distribution of 150k doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine today and the remaining 260k doses on June 10. Officials also said priority will be given to medical workers and pandemic prevention workers.
• Meanwhile, tensions with China continue to simmer, Taiwan's president said yesterday that China had blocked Taiwan's deal with BioNTech on its COVID-19 vaccine, while Taiwan reportedly rejected an offer from China to supply vaccines to Taiwan.
• Later in the session the April monitoring indicator will be released by the NDC, the leading index printed 40 in March, marching its highest since 1989 for the second month. Bloomberg notes that a score of 40 indicates the economy is booming.