USD/CNH hovers not too far from where....>

CHINA YUAN: USD/CNH hovers not too far from where it finished yesterday, last

+80 pips at CNH7.1843. Today's PBoC fixing was closely watched for signs about

China's central bank's stance towards yuan weakening, which made USD/CNH test

its record highs yesterday. Policymakers have opted to lightly lean against

currency depreciation recently and continued to do so today, setting the USD/CNY

mid-point at CNY7.1277, 185 pips above yesterday's fix & 45 pips below the

estimate provided by BBG (ahead of the fix they flagged that a 46 pip difference

would be equivalent to one standard deviation).

- USD/CNH has been stable thus far, reacting to the daily fix with just a modest

knee-jerk higher, even as it was stronger than exp. It seems participants await

fresh signals on China's tensions over HK w/U.S., but also w/Australia over

trade matters or w/Canada over Huawei CFO's pending extradition to the U.S.

- The all-time high of CNH7.1965 & psychological CNH7.2000 resistance are the

main near-term bullish targets. Bears look for a pullback Mar 19 high of

CNH7.1653, with the next support lvl of note coming at May 26 low of CNH7.1356.

- China reports its official PMI data on Sunday.