Following the decline in US stocks, Asian markets turned slightly weaker today. Chinese stocks are resilient though, fluctuating in tight range between gain and loss. The government lowered 2019 growth target to 6.0-6.5%, with the lower bound at lowest pace in more than three decades. But the move was widely expected and thus triggered little reactions. RBA kept interest rate unchanged at 1.50% too. It maintained the central scenarios of growth, inflation and employment forecasts. The tone of the statement is a touch more optimistic comparing to February’s. But it’s largely shrugged off by the Australian Dollar.
In the currency markets, Dollar is so far the strongest one for today, followed by Euro and Swiss Franc. EUR/USD breached 1.1316 support overnight but there was no follow through buying. The greenback will need to flex some more muscles to show that it’s regaining near term strength. Commodity currencies are the weakest ones, led by New Zealand Dollar.
In Asia:
- Nikkei is down -0.60%.
- Hong Kong HSI is down -0.10%.
- China Shanghai SSE is up 0.15%.
- Singapore Strait Times is down -0.46%.
- Japan 10-year JGB yield is up 0.0023 at 0.003, staying positive.
Overnight:
- DOW dropped -0.79%.
- S&P 500 dropped -0.39%.
- NASDAQ dropped -0.23%.
- 10-year yield dropped -0.033 to 2.722.
There is some improvements in yield curve inversion in the US. 5-year yield at 2.531 is now back above 6-month yield at 2.504. Ad it’s not far from 1-year yield at 2.557.
