South Korea's Trade Deficit Widens

USD/KRW 1-month NDF last seen +1.74 fig at KRW1,208.04, with onshore markets shut for two days through Wednesday in observance of the Lunar New Year holiday. Bulls need a break above Jan 28 high of KRW1,214.39 before setting their sights on Jun 17, 2020 high of KRW1,218.41. Meanwhile, a dip through the 50-DMA at KRW1,190.81 would support the bearish case.

• South Korea's monthly trade deficit widened to $4.889bn in January, considerably more than projected. It was expected to print at $2.100bn, according to Bloomberg survey of analysts.
• The annual growth in exports slowed only slightly more than forecast, but some are pointing out that the figure may have been boosted by front-loaded shipments before this week's holiday. Exports rose 15.2% Y/Y (median est. 15.8%) after an 18.3% increase recorded in December.
• South Korea's trade data receives much attention, owing to its early release dates and the widespread presence of Korean exporters in global supply chains.
• Coming up later this week we have South Korea's Markit M'fing PMI (Thursday) & CPI (Friday).