Risk Appetite Returns

Risk appetite returned as the greenback weakened, though elevated cases of COVID-19 in several countries make the outlook uncertain.

• CNH: Offshore yuan is stronger, USD/CNH had been treading water but found a route lower after the PBOC fixed the midpoint for USD/CNY at 6.4357, 50 pips lower than yesterday, 12 pips lower than sell side estimates.
• SGD: Singapore dollar is stronger, the pair dropped through 100-day moving average. As the number of coronavirus cases in Singapore creeps higher the Hong Kong-Singapore travel bubble has been delayed
• TWD: Taiwan dollar gained alongside the Taiex, the index rose around 4.5% after losing 3% yesterday as the Taiwan Financial Stabilisation Fund said late yesterday that it would closely monitor stock markets and would enact measures if needed. USD/TWD has dropped back below the 28.00 handle.
• KRW: Won is higher, reversing early losses. USD/KRW touched the highest since early March, and came within 10 points of the 2021 high at 1145.20 as well as moving above its 200-day moving average at 1131.97, the first time since July 2020.
• MYR: Ringgit is stronger shrugging off the latest downbeat musings about Malaysia's Covid-19 situation., Malaysia recorded the highest number of deaths from Covid-19 on Monday since the beginning of the pandemic.
• IDR: Rupiah is lower, Indonesian Econ Min Hartarto said that the gov't has spent IDR172.35tn under its recovery budget for this year, which is equivalent to 24.6% of the entire 2021 recovery spending plan. Hartart added that the gov't expects a Q2 GDP growth of ~7% Y/Y.
• PHP: Peso is slightly stronger, Philippine cash overseas remittances grew 4.9% Y/Y in March, which was coupled with a revision of February's reading to +5.0% from +5.1%. The latest reading considerably missed BBG median est. of +8.4%. Over the whole Q1, cash remittances rose 2.6% Y/Y.
• THB: Baht as gained, the BoT warned that we may see an increasing number of non-performing loans of businesses from the tourism sector in Q2, as the third wave of coronavirus has delayed reopening plans.