The Hang Seng led Asian equities lower due to the extradition protest, with reports now flowing in that the government has postponed their vote. Gold is back above $1300 after yesterday’s doji. WTI back below $53 as the daily chart tries to carve out a top.
It’s a narrow-ranged day for FX overall, although there’s a slight bid for safe havens to see CHF and JPY are the strongest majors, whilst NZD and AUD are the weakest. AUD/USD is testing yesterday’s lows on weaker consumer sentiment, although currently testing its daily retracement line.
Japan’s machinery tool orders rose 5.2% in May to beat expectations of -5.3% and drag the YoY rate up to 2.5%. Yet sceptics point out it is masking a drop in the investment outloook, and doubt these expansive numbers can be maintained.
No headline surprises in China’s CPI or PPI data, with inflation remaining stagnant at 0% in May, 2.7% YoY and producer prices rising 0.6% YoY all as expected.
Australian consumer sentiment dipped by 0.6% in June after a run of disapointing data overshadowed this month’s RBA cut. This is in stark contracts to business sentiment which jumped to its highest level since September.
