U.S. Dollar Falters Amid Equity Bid

The greenback is losing ground amid an uptick in e-mini futures, with all three main contracts trading in the green after U.S. equity benchmarks finished Monday's Wall Street session slightly higher. It is hard to attribute equity resilience to any specific catalysts, with headline flow fairly light in early Asia-Pac trade.

• With the U.S. dollar sitting at the bottom of the G10 pile, JPY and CHF are next worst performers, with participants showing little appetite for safer currencies.
• USD/JPY dropped in tandem with the BBDXY index after ignoring above-forecast Japanese inflation data released earlier. Core CPI accelerated to +2.8% Y/Y in Aug from +2.4% prior, exceeding the median estimate of +2.7%.
• G10 crosses hold narrow ranges, with AUD outperforming major regional peers. AUD/NZD refreshed six-year highs this morning, showing as high as at NZ$1.1296.
• The PBOC's monthly LPR fixing and the minutes from the RBA's most recent monetary policy meeting headline the Asia-Pac docket during the remainder of the day.
• After Asia hours, focus will shift to U.S. housing starts/building permits, Canadian CPI, comments from ECB's Lagarde & Muller, as well as Riksbank's monetary policy review.