News flow has been rather sparse thus far,....>

FOREX: News flow has been rather sparse thus far, with focus on U.S. House

approval of a bill condemning China over human rights abuses in the Xinjiang

province & China's retaliation threats. These developments came as no surprise,

but may be limiting the Antipodeans & helping JPY a tad, against the backdrop of

increasing worries re: U.S.-China trade talks. The yen was earlier hit by modest

selling pressure as the Nikkei 225 opened on the back foot.

- The Aussie sits at the bottom of the G10 pile after the local Q3 GDP report

came with a slight miss in Q/Q GDP and an underwhelming household consumption

figure, which suggests that firmer house prices & tax cuts are struggling to

exert a material impact on consumer decisions.

- CAD has firmed up ahead of today's monetary policy decision from the BoC.

- Revived concerns about global trade matters have taken their toll on KRW.

USD/KRW opened above its 100-DMA, which capped gains yesterday.

- U.S. ADP employment change & ISM non-m'fing and a number of services/composite

PMI readings from across the world take focus from here. Comments are awaited

from ECB's Villeroy, Visco, Makhlouf and de Cos, as well as Fed's Quarles.