Halister News

(Bloomberg) -- Malaysia’s ringgit leads gains among most Asian currencies on improving risk sentiment as regional equities advance for a second straight day.

• Combination of dovish Fed, improving China growth outlook is boosting sentiment and strength in ringgit: Mirza Baig, head of Asia Pacific foreign-exchange & interest-rate strategy at BNP Paribas
• Yen is set to snap two-day loss after advancing, with the nation reporting its biggest trade surplus since Oct. 2010
  • Stronger yen cuts cost of energy and other imports, leaving trade surplus of 755b yen; shipments fell 6.8% on year and imports down 14.9%
  • Yield on Japan’s 40-year debt reaching record low on BOJ purchases and demand from investors for positive returns
  • Central bank Governor Kuroda repeats today that BOJ won’t hesitate to take additional easing measures if needed
• China raises yuan fixing to strongest level since Dec. 15 amid dollar weakness
  • Goldman raised GDP forecast for China to 6.6%, from 6.4%, with the expectation that policy support will be less aggressive
  • PBOC may be signaling less appetite for adding monetary stimulus, with research bureau chief economist Ma Jun saying late Tuesday that future policy operations will also pay attention to heading off risks, esp on over- expansion of corp. leverage
• Kiwi declines versus dollar for the first time since April 14; New Zealand Finance Minister English is stepping up his oversight of the central bank, documents obtained under the Official Information Act show
• Aussie weakens; Australia’s leading index slipped 0.12% in March from month earlier when it declined revised 0.23%
• Won rises to strongest level since November; South Korea’s producer prices fell 3.3% in March from year earlier following 3.4% decline prior month
  • Nomura recommends adding to Korea rates steepener exposure
• U.S. Treasuries advance, with yield on 10-year bonds falling 2 bps to 1.771%; data today may show existing home sales in the world’s largest economy increased 3.9% in March on month after 7.1% decline in February: Bloomberg survey
• Ringgit strengthens for second day; Malaysia’s inflation probably slowed to 3.4% in March on year from 4.2% in February, according to Bloomberg survey before data today
  • Former premier Mahathir, two others applied to high court to freeze assets belonging to Prime Minister Najib, Sun newspaper reports
• Taiwan dollar rises; island’s export orders may have decreased 8.0% in March from prior year after 7.4% slide previous month, according to separate Bloomberg survey before today’s data