The USD has seen some across the board weakness during Asian trade, EUR/USD presently up at 1.4050 compared to a North American close Wednesday around 1.3985, while cable is up at 1.6420 from around 1.6350.
The USD is being underminned by worries major emerging countries (BRICs) may be about to aggressively diversify out of the USD and US assets. No lesser judges than our own Jamie Coleman and Goldmans feel these worries are overblown.
Elsewhere risk appetite remains healthy, helping support likes of sterling, euro, aussie and canadian dollar. The Nikkei poked it’s head over 10,000 overnight, the first time since last October.
Sentiment will have been bolstered by the release of Australian May employment data which showed a much lower decline in the number of jobless than expected, a mere -1,700 s.a compared to a median forecast of -30,000. The unemployment rate came in at 5.7%, as expected.
Japan’s Q-1 GDP was revised up, to -3.8% q/q and -14.2% annualised from initial -4.0% , -15% respectively, which would also have helped a little.
Elsewhere, China’s Jan-May urban fixed asset investment was up 32.9% from a year earlier, better than the median forecast of 31%.
There are also expectations that tomorrow’s release of Chinese industrial output is going to see a nice pop.