• Nov 30 BOJ minutes: market stress due to Europe likely to persist for a protracted period
  • Polls show Japan PM Noda quickly losing popularity
  • Chinese corporate profits +24.4% y/y in the first 11 months of 2011
  • Chinese provincial borrowers defer $5B in loan payments for two months
  • Chinese fiscal deficit forecast is 800B yuan in 2012 vs 850B in 2011
  • Azumi expects export pick up in early 2012
  • Japan vehicle sales +4.5% y/y vs -4.5% in Oct
  • Gold falls $13 to $1594/oz
  • EUR and CHF lead, AUD lags

The market awoke right at the start of Asia-Pac trading with a jolt as AUD/USD promptly dropped 25 pips to erase the previous day’s gain. Afterwards, gaps and air pockets continued to dominate, causing 20 pips moves across the market.

The overall theme was a touch of risk aversion but EUR was an outperformer, perhaps due to some short covering ahead of year end.

Gold was a standout as Asia sellers took it straight down from the open, slipping all the way to $1591 from $1616.