Eyes
were on China yet again with

  • the
    People’s Bank of China setting the Medium-term Lending Facility
    (MLF) rate – at an unchanged 2.65%
  • June
    economic activity data – coming in mixed
  • Q2
    GDP data – coming in better than expected on a q/q basis but not on
    a y/y basis

The
net impact of all the economic events from China was subdued, with
major FX trading small ranges only. This was also partially due to a
Japanese market holiday. Hong Kong markets were out as well, with
trade on the HKEX stopped for Monday due to a severe typhoon warning.

News
flow was light. Traffic was stopped on the Crimea/Russia bridge due
to an “emergency” said Russian sources; while Ukrainian
media reported explosions were heard. Reports are that one span of
the bridge is down while another is damaged.

Asian
equity markets:

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 -0.1%

  • China’s Shanghai Composite -1.1%

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng… closed due to typhoon warning

  • South Korea’s KOSPI -0.3%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 -0.05%

USD/JPY ticked a little lower.