The early part of today's Asia-Pac session....>

FOREX: The early part of today's Asia-Pac session saw UK PM May and her EU peers

emerge from a summit, where they discussed May's request for an extension to

Article 50. The EU agreed to postpone Brexit at least until Apr 12, by which

time the UK must decide which of the four options on the table it wants to

pursue - the current Brexit deal, a "no-deal", a long extension, or revoking

Article 50. If PM May's deal is passed by lawmakers on time, the UK will leave

the EU on May 22. Sterling outperformed among the G10 currencies as a result.

- The Aussie underperformed at the margin, with BBG citing a trader saying that

AUD weakness was mostly due to sales against NZD. Kiwi was the second best G10

currency.

- JPY showed some strength, as the Nikkei 225 slid into negative territory, but

this proved short lived. Domestic data releases were largely ignored by JPY,

with the Nikkei m'fing PMI printing unch. at 48.9 and national core CPI coming

at 0.7% Y/Y, undershooting exp. and still far away from the BoJ's 2% target.

- Focus today turns to global flash PMI data, as well as Canadian CPI and retail

sales. Elsewhere, ECB's de Guindos & Angeloni are due to speak.