Won Outperforms On Robust Exports

The greenback rose in Asia on Wednesday, the dollar index rising above Tuesday's high briefly, risk sentiment was mostly positive which helped temper Asia EM losses.

• CNH: Offshore yuan is slightly weaker, the yuan showed limited reaction to the first contractionary print of China's Caixin Manufacturing PMI since April '20, with spot USD/CNH posting a small blip higher.
• SGD: Singapore dollar is flat, sticking to a narrow range through the session. On the coronavirus front there were 156 new cases in the past 24 hours, above 100 for the eighth consecutive day.
• KRW: Won is stronger, the best performer in Asia. Data earlier showed the trade surplus widened more than expected, exports grew for the tenth straight month in August driven by sales of chips and automobiles.
• TWD: Taiwan dollar is stronger, on track to gain for the seventh session of the past eight, data earlier showed Markit Taiwan manufacturing PMI slipped slightly to 58.5 from 59.7.
• MYR: Ringgit gained, the Finance Ministry released its first-ever pre-budget statement yesterday, noting that the 2022 federal budget will focus on the "recovery from the pandemic, rebuilding of national resilience and catalysing reforms".
• IDR: Rupiah dipped slightly, Indonesia's manufacturing sector remained deep in contraction in August, even as its pace decreased a tad, with Markit M'fing PMI edging higher to 43.7 from 40.1. CPI rose in line with estimates at 1.59% Y/Y.
• PHP: Peso is weaker, the Philippine manufacturing sector has plunged into contraction in August, according to the latest Markit PMI survey. The index fell to 46.4 from 50.4 recorded in July.
• THB: Baht is lower, nationwide count of new Covid-19 infections registered below 15,000 for the second straight day. As a reminder, Thailand is relaxing some of its mobility curbs from today.