Busier day on the Asian economic calendar this morning.
The Japanese Yen and Aussie Dollar were in action through the early part of the day.Out of Japan, January trade figures were in focus ahead of 4th quarter wage growth numbers out of Australia.
Japanese Yen Japan’s trade deficit widened from ¥154.6bn to ¥1,312.6bn in January. Economists had forecast a widening to ¥1,684.9bn. According to figures released by the Ministry of Finance,Exports fell by 2.6%, following a 6.3% slide in December. Economists had forecast a 6.9% fall.
Exports to China fell by 6.4% and by 12.1% to Korea. There were also notable declines in exports to the U.S (-7.7%) and to Germany (-5.4%).Exports to the UK surged by 20.3% to make the Western European numbers more palatable.
Imports fell by 3.6% in January, following a 4.9% slide in December. Economists had forecast a 1.3% decline.Imports from China and HK fell by 5.7% and by 42.4% respectively.From the U.S, imports fell by 11.5% and by 9.1% from Germany.
Currencies
The Japanese Yen moved from ¥109.894 to ¥109.943 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was down by 0.04% to ¥109.91 against the U.S Dollar
The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.66911 to $0.66916 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar was up by 0.07% to $0.6691.Elsewhere At the time of writing, the Kiwi Dollar was up by 0.19% to $0.6398.
Barring fiscal support from the likes of the German and French governments, the onus will remain on the ECB to provide support. ECB President Lagarde may be a little unwilling, particularly with a number of finance ministers up in arms over ECB monetary policy.At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.06% at $1.0799.
FED Chair Powell talked of a resilient U.S economy, it remains to be seen whether other Committee members share a similar view.Ultimately, however, economic indicators from the U.S have supported Powell’s and the FED’s outlook on growth until now.At the time of writing, the Dollar Spot Index was down by 0.02% to 99.420.
The Loonie was up by 0.05% at C$1.3253 against the U.S Dollar, at the time of writing.
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