The New Zealand dollar was an outperformer during the session, rising towards 0.6075 on the back of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand April monetary policy statement (officially this was a Monetary Policy Review (MPR), not a Monetary Policy Statements (MPS). Review’s are briefer that Statements). The Bank left its official Cash Rate unchanged at 5.5% and wrapped up its statement with the hawkish:

  • The Committee agreed that interest rates need to remain at a restrictive level for a sustained period to ensure annual consumer price inflation returns to the 1 to 3 percent target range.

Bolding is mine.

Across other major FX ranges were tight, with traders now awaiting the US CPI report due at 8.30 am US Eastern time (1230 GMT).

We had remarks from Bank of Japan Governor Ueda (see points above). Most notably he said that the Bank of Japan will consider a policy change if the weak yen causes inflation to overshoot. Japanese Government Bond 10 year yield rose to its highest since March 15.

Fitch (rating agency) revised its outlook on China to negative, while affirming the country at 'A+' rating. In downgrading its outlook Fitch cited increasing risks to China's public finance outlook (more in the bullet point above).

In regional equities, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng performed well:

Hong Kong's Hang Send daily candles wrap 10 April 2024