It was a quiet session in Asia today due to the US holiday on Monday sapping big investor interest. News and data flow was very light indeed. US Secretary of State Blinken met with Chinese officials over the weekend. He spent over 7 hours in talks with his counterpart, China's Foreign Minister Qin Gang. Reports on the meeting provided not detail at all, as yet, with only a round of saccharine 'work together' types of statements.

In other events, Goldman Sachs analysts joined in to became the latest bank to cut their forecasts for China’s economy, citing limited options to boost stimulus. UBS, Nomura, and Standard Chartered were amongst those that had already done so. The more subdued outlook for Chinese economic growth was cited by various commentators during the session as the reason for the fall in oil prices, and also AUD, NZD and CAD. EUR and GBP hung in a little better. USD/JPY has done very little at all on the day.

Asian equity markets:

  • Japan’s Nikkei 225 0%

  • China’s Shanghai Composite -0.5%

  • Hong Kong’s Hang Seng -1%

  • South Korea’s KOSPI -0.6%

  • Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 +0.6%

The offshore yuan was a mover, giving back some of the gains it made late last week:

yuan cnh wrap chart 19 June 2023