The first half of today's Asia-Pacific........>

FOREX: The first half of today's Asia-Pacific session was headlined by the

release of the RBA's Feb MonPol meeting minutes. AUD crosses spiked to session

highs initially, but quickly eased off, with AUD eventually falling to the

bottom of the G10 pile. There were no surprises in the text of the minutes, as

the Bank noted that it sees scenarios where a rate hike or cut would be

appropriate, pointing to significant uncertainties around its forecasts. The RBA

highlighted the relative strength of the domestic labour mkt and reiterated that

consumption, and the impact thereon of falling house prices, is a key risk to

its outlook. Elsewhere, trade tensions were mentioned in the context of the

global outlook.

- JPY has outperformed at the margin, while the Nikkei 225 has gyrated around

unchanged levels.

- CAD has lost some steam, as WTI has shed $0.30 thus far.

- Focus today turns to German ZEW survey, Italian industrial orders, Swedish CPI

& UK labour mkt data. Elsewhere, ECB's de Guindos, Costa & Praet, Fed's Mester

and Riksbank's Ingves will speak.