Weekend:

The reverberations of the blockbuster US December jobs report continued in Asia today:

  • US treasury yields remained firmly near recent 14-month highs
  • the USD flexed, sending EUR and GBP sliding lower
  • US equity index futures slipped lower in Sunday evening (US time) Globex trading
  • Regional equities here in Asia weakened

Oil moved higher, the Friday news of the US and UK tightening sanctions on Russian oil continuing to impact.

It was a holiday in Japan today, which thinned out liquidity somewhat. Despite the holiday the yen carved its own path, initially losing some ground against the USD (session highs were above 157.90 briefly) before the yen strengthened, taking USD/JPY back under 157.50. Yen crosses were pounded, GBP/JPY and EUR/JPY notable losers.

We had a barrage of announcements from China today, supportive of the yuan (or intended to be), see the posts above for the details but, in brief:

  • the PBoC and SAFE increased the macro-prudential adjustment parameter from 1.5 to 1.75, allowing companies to borrow more from abroad
  • the China Foreign Exchange Committee pledged to keep the yuan exchange rate stable at reasonable levels, combat pro-cyclical market behaviors, and prevent excessive exchange rate volatility
  • PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng reiterated that China has the capability to maintain the stable operation of its foreign exchange market.

The yuan was reasonably steady against the USD in response, not dropping like EUR and GBP.

euryen wrap 13 January 2025 2