USD Flat, A$ & Yen Stronger

With the US mainly closed for the Martin Luther King holiday and little news flow, there haven’t been big moves in currency markets today. The BBDXY USD index is off its intraday low but flat on the day at 1224.40 with UST futures in narrow ranges. The unexpected hold of the China’s 1-year MLF rate at 2.5% hasn’t rattled FX either with USDCNY also flat at 7.17.

• USDJPY is 0.2% higher to 145.15, just off the intraday high of 145.23. It has spent most of the session above 145. Continued Middle East tensions haven’t driven any further safe haven flows into yen today. Oil prices are only slightly higher.
• AUDUSD is up 0.1% in APAC trading to 0.6692. It broke above 67c briefly earlier to make a high of 0.6704, still well below resistance of 0.6771, but has now given up most of those gains.
• NZDUSD is 0.2% lower to 0.6230 after a high of 0.6251 early in the session. As a result, aussie has gained 0.25% against kiwi and it hovering just above 1.0740.
• The World Economic Forum is running in Davos and the Eurogroup meeting is taking place. In terms of data, there is euro area IP and trade.