USD/CNH changes hands at CNH7.0938 as....>

CHINA YUAN: USD/CNH changes hands at CNH7.0938 as we type, almost unchanged on

the day. The rate has been happy to hold a tight range after trimming losses

into yesterday's close amid reports pointing to a failed trial of Gilead

Sciences' experimental drug for coronavirus in China. Little to move the needle

since then, with PBoC fix roughly matching estimates.

- The PBoC lowered the rate applied to its 1-year TMLFs to 2.95% from 3.15%. It

rolled over CNY56.1bn of the funds today, which resulted in a net drain of

CNY211.3bn, given that CNY267.4bn of 1-year TMLFs matured today.

- Global Times tweeted that "an emergency Covid-19 vaccine could be developed by

Sep" & a new vaccine "may be administered to healthy people by early next year".

- The rate has been trimming gains from Monday and Tuesday ahead of the weekend,

with bears looking for a deeper sell-off past the 50-DMA at CNH7.0482, towards

Apr 10 low/200-DMA at CNH7.0370/38. Bulls need to clear Apr 2 high of CNH7.1423

before focusing on Mar 19 high of CNH7.1653, a multi-month peak.

- Coming up next week we have China's industrial profits, due Monday, and

official PMI figures, due Thursday.