The big news from Asia is that China moved to cut its 5-year LPR by 25 bps here. It’s the largest cut on record but is it too little, too late? The idea here is to try and stimulate credit demand but I fear that the damage has already been done over the last year or so.
The Chinese yuan remains under pressure but the PBOC is keeping a firm lid on USD/CNY still. The pair continues to keep just below 7.20 with a hard line drawn at that level currently:
USD/CNY daily chart
The major currencies bloc continues to show light changes since yesterday as we get over the long weekend hangover. USD/JPY is up slightly by 0.2% to 150.40 but remains within the realms seen last week. Besides that, the changes are minimal across the board as narrow ranges continue to hold for now.
With US markets set to return, eyes will be on Wall Street to provide some guidance on the flows this week. Otherwise, the technicals will continue to be a key point of focus.
For dollar pairs, the commodity currencies are seeing upside more limited at the moment because of that:
AUD/USD daily chart
The aussie is being hindered by the 100-day moving average (red line) so far this month, as it trades in and around the 0.6500 mark.
NZD/USD daily chart
Meanwhile, NZD/USD is finding itself more rangebound at the moment in between 0.6050 to 0.6150 mostly.