The initial risk-off swing was somewhat.......>

FOREX: The initial risk-off swing was somewhat retraced as BBG reported that

China's Vice Premier Liu said that he was "cautiously optimistic" about

phase-one trade pact with the U.S. That said, safe havens still outperformed

their high-beta peers, following a mix of risk negative signals from the NY/Asia

crossover. These mostly centred around the adoption of the contentious Hong Kong

Bill by the House of Representatives and talk of U.S. Pres Trump being ready to

sign it into law. A round of Trump's criticism of Beijing's attitude during the

talks didn't help to improve sentiment, as participants were still assessing

y'day's RTRS piece pointing to a potential delay in wrapping up "phase one."

- USD/CNH round tripped accordingly and now operates near neutral levels.

- Against the backdrop of U.S.-China tensions, KRW fell prey to poor South

Korean trade figures for the first 20 days of November, with exports sliding for

the 12th straight month. USD/KRW touched its best levels since Oct 21.

- Today's docket features U.S. existing home sales & Philly Fed Survey, as well

as EZ cons. conf. & the minutes from the ECB's Oct MonPol meeting. Fed's Mester

and Kashkari, BoC's Poloz and ECB's Mersch and de Guindos are set to speak.