Bank
of Japan Governor Ueda spoke during the US timezone, with comments
indicating he didn’t sound like a guy who wants to change YCC at
the end of the month. The yen weakened on the remarks and it
continued to do so here during the Asian timezone, trading to highs
circa 139.30.

US
dollar strength was more widespread too. EUR, GBP, AUD and NZD are
all lower on the session. NZD/USD was volatile (relatively). It was
marked higher on the release of Q2 CPI data that came in well below
Q1 levels but nevertheless slightly higher than was expected. The
initial response from markets was to move closer to pricing an RBNZ
rate hike by around November. The knee-jerk NZD/USD upmove was
reversed over the following hours though. As I post NZD/USD is net
down a few tics on the session.

Asian
equity markets:

• Japan’s Nikkei 225 +1%

• China’s Shanghai Composite -0.1%

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng -1.3%

• South Korea’s KOSPI -0.2%

• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.4%