There was little news nor data flow to move around markets much at all during the session with more traders in the timezone content to wait it out until the US Non-farm Payroll report due later.

From Japan we had comments crossing the news wires from both Bank of Japan Governor Ueda and Japan finance minister Suzuki. Neither said anything new, going over old ground. USD/JPY gained a few points to just over 139.00 but soon dribbled back to be little net changed.

ANZ raised their forecast ‘terminal’ rate for the Reserve Bank of Australia, but still tipped an ‘on hold’ decision at next week’s, June 6, policy meeting. Australia's Fair Work Commission announced a wage hike that’ll apply to a portion of the Australian work force, see bullets above. These were was enough to send AUD/USD up to circa 0.6601. NZD/USD followed along a little higher also.

Oil popped back up a little ahead of this weekend’s OPEC meeting, without much of an obvious fresh catalyst.

The US Senate passed the bill to lift the government's $31.4 trillion debt ceiling.

Equities gained in Japan, Australia, and mainland China, following on from a strong Wall Street lead where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rallied on Thursday. Hong Kong stocks powered higher, a tech-driven rally.

Asian equity markets:

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 +0.75%

  • China’s Shanghai Composite +0.45%

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng +3.1%

  • South Korea’s KOSPI +0.8%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 %+0.2

usdyen wrap chart pre nfp 02 June 2023