The
US 10-year Treasury yield hit its highest level since 2007 in Monday
US time trade. Despite this the US session saw a lower US dollar and
higher equity indexes. This set the stage for Asia trade today where
regional stocks are mainly higher and the losses for the US dollar
have continued, albeit in a small range only.
EUR,
GBP and NZD are all a touch better bid against the dollar while AUD
and CAD are laggards. USD/JPY has dropped away from its early high
just shy of 146.40 to back circa 146.00. There has been no fresh news
nor data out of Japan, although the benchmark 10 year JGB saw its
yield track higher.
In
local geopolitics North Korea informed Japan it intends to launch a
satellite sometime before August 31. South Korea issued maritime
safety warnings over the North Korea plan. Markets have been
shrugging off North Korean belligerence.
From
China news flow was light. The People’s Bank of China set the
reference rate for the onshore yuan around 11 big figures from
modelled estimates, the biggest gap ever. Remember, the aim of the
People’s Bank of China is to slow the drop in the yuan, hence the
efforts to prop it up in the face of an ever-widening 10-year yield
differential with the US.
Asian
equity markets:
-
Japan’s Nikkei 225 +0.7%
-
China’s Shanghai Composite +0.3%
-
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng +0.7%
-
South Korea’s KOSPI +0.6%
-
Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.1%