The Asia-Pac session opened with a bout of....>

FOREX: The Asia-Pac session opened with a bout of risk-off flows, but sentiment

improved gradually, producing a mixed picture. Initial caution was inspired by a

BBG source story re: the U.S. holding off on licenses for U.S. firms to do

business with Huawei, as well as the breakdown of Italy's ruling coalition.

AUD/JPY, a risk barometer, slid 50 pips early doors only to erase losses.

- Against this backdrop came some fresh Antipodean central bank rhetoric,

including RBA Gov Lowe's testimony. AUD fluctuated on his speech - rose on a

comment that Australian economy "may have reached a gentle turn" and knee-jerked

lower on a quickly downplayed mention of unconventional policy tools. NZD was

lifted by RBNZ Gov Orr's remark that the FX rate is competitive on average

basis, but looked through comments from RBNZ Dep Gov Bascand, who said that

above-potential growth is needed to boost inflation. NZD slightly outperforms.

- PBoC MPC member Ma said that the yuan can be kept stable. A slight beat in

China's CPI was coupled with PPI entering deflationary territory.

- Data highlights include UK GDP (p) & monthly activity data, French industrial

output, German trade balance, Canadian unemployment, Norwegian CPI & U.S. PPI.