There
was a minor retracement loss for the US dollar after its sharp gains
in post-US CPI trade Thursday. EUR, GBP, AUD all showed small
positives. USD/JPY, on the other hand, traded fairly steadily around
149.80, once again threatening 150. As I post we have not had
‘intervention’ remarks from Japanese officials, although we did
hear from one Ministry of Finance official speaking from the G7 in
Morocco on Thursday.

In
China today, the People’s Bank of China once again set USD/CNY on
the 7.17 big figure despite the market trading it more than 10 big
figures higher. China’s inflation data shows the country is on the
edge of deflation again. The trade data improved marginally m/m but is still down on last year.

Asian
equity markets fell following the poor lead from Wall Street.

Asian
equity markets:

• Japan’s Nikkei 225 -0.4%

• China’s Shanghai Composite -0.6%

• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng -2%

• South Korea’s KOSPI -0.8%

• Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 -0.3%

Oil update: