Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Asian currencies weaken against the dollar following the bigger-than-estimated increase in U.S. payrolls data on Aug. 5; baht bucks trend after Thais affirm military-backed charter in Sunday’s referendum. China’s July exports remain sluggish in dollar terms while trade surplus widens.

• Bonds drop in Asia following increase in U.S. yields on Friday after the employment data
• The stronger U.S. employment data revives talk of Fed rate hike this year and supports the dollar broadly, says Tsutomu Soma, Tokyo-based general manager of fixed-income at SBI Securities
  • Baht is exception for now as Thai voters approved draft constitution in referendum, providing “relief” to investors
• Onshore yuan falls as much as 0.2%, most since July 18, as PBOC weakens reference rate; July exports stabilized in yuan terms as weaker currency lends some support to shipment
  • July trade balance rose to $52.3b vs est. $47.3b, prev. $48.1b; exports -4.4% y/y vs est. -3.5%, prev -4.8%; imports -12.5% y/y vs est. -7%, prev. -8.4%
  • Data Sunday showed FX reserves dropped $4.1b to $3.2t in July
  • Excluding valuation effect, outflow may have been $15b, Goldman Sachs says
  • Reserves stabilized on weaker dollar, less intervention: Commerzbank economist Zhou Hao
  • China needs to stick to prudent monetary policy; improve stability of policies to make it more targeted and efficient, according to a commentary in PBOC-run Financial News
  • PBOC’s comment late Friday that “too frequent RRR cuts will aggravate yuan depreciation pressures” rules out large-scale easing in 3Q, says Harrison Hu, chief Greater China economist at RBS
• Yen and JGBs fall
  • June current-account surplus came in at 974.4b yen; est. +1.1t yen
  • Japanese life insurers bought record amount of overseas securities in July, finance ministry data show
  • One BOJ member said policy review should be conducted from perspective of what should be done to achieve the price target, according to summary of opinions at July 28-29 meeting released today
  • Twenty-two of 33 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg say BOJ’s review of monetary policy makes expanded stimulus more likely
• Kiwi set for second day of decline ahead of RBNZ policy meeting this wk where median est. forecast a 25bps rate cut to 2%
  • RBNZ will cut benchmark rate to 1.5% by Nov., BNZ forecasts
  • Kiwi’s wings clipped by macro selling ahead of RBNZ; AUD/NZD ascent paused momentarily at 1.0700 strikes before continued macro selling of kiwi lifted the cross above that level, according to an Asia-based FX trader
• Baht bucks weaker trend in Asian currencies to rise after Thai voters approved peacefully on Sunday a military-backed constitution, putting the country on track toward an election scheduled for late 2017
• Won set to snap two-day rally
  • Financial Supervisory Service identifies 32 firms in need of restructuring
• Ringgit leads slide in Asia’s EM currencies
  • Foreign funds halt 2-month selling streak for Malaysia stocks in July, exchange data shows
  • PM Najib asks UMNO party members not to undermine presidency: Sun reports
• Taiwan dollar steady
  • Island’s exports probably decreased 2.1% y/y in July vs -2.1% previous month; imports seen -5.1% vs -10.0%; trade surplus at $3.83b after $3.58b prior month: Bloomberg survey before data today