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ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX information wrap: PBoC helps CNY once more

Over
the weekend we had comments from Federal Reserve Board Governor
Adriana Kugler along with Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
President Mary Daly saying that while progress had been made on
bringing down inflation there was still work to be done. The
assessment seemed to weigh on gold during the session here, keeping
it under US$2650.

The
impact on FX, though, was hard to pinpoint. EUR, AUD, NZD, GBP all
rose.

CAD
responded more to an indication that Canadian Prime Minister Justin
Trudeau appears likely to step down. An announcement could come as
soon as Monday. USD/CAD dropped under 1.4400.

USD/JPY
was a mover, to highs just over 157.80. Today was the first session
of the year for Japanese markets after holidays on January 1, 2 and
3. Data from Japan today were Services (up from November) and
Composite (down from November) PMIs, a bit mixed. Bank of Japan
Governor Ueda spoke but did not give a clear indication of rate hike
timing to come. Dai-ichi Life company’s president, Toshiaki Sumino,
expects a BoJ rate hike this month (the BoJ meet January 23 and 24).

China
was interesting. On Friday USD/CNY crossed above 7.3, leading to much
speculation that the People’s Bank of China was trimming back its
support for yuan and that Monday’s reference rate fixing would be
above 7.2. Indeed, USD/CNY climbed above 7.3275 (CNY hit a 16 month low). The People’s Bank
of China, however, set the USD/CNY reference rate at 7.1876, well
under 7.2. Further, a PBOC-backed newspaper, Financial News,
reaffirmed the central bank’s “resolute” support for the
yuan. News also that the PBOC is set to issue a record volume of
offshore yuan bills in Hong Kong this month, aiming to stabilize the
yuan’s exchange rate amid the growing pressures. Issuing offshore
yuan bills is a strategy for absorbing excess liquidity in the
offshore market, reducing downward pressure on the currency.

Data
from China today was the Caixin Services PMI, reported at a 7 month
high of 52.2 (vs. expected 51.7 and November’s 51.5). Composite
dipped to 51.4, from November’s 52.3, weaker manufacturing output
slowed overall growth to its lowest level since September.

Trump yelled out his main policy planks once again today:

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