ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: A subdued pre-NFP session

• US Senate vote to approve the bill to raise the debt limit
• More fom Bank of Japan Governor Ueda: CPI to slow, easy policy will be maintained
• Japan finance minister Suzuki says FX rate moves are driven by the market, various factors
• Australian housing finance data for April misses estimate
• Bank of Japan Governor Ueda says higher trend inflation likely but it’ll take time
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY mid-point today at 7.0939 (vs. estimate at 7.0958)
• Australia’s minimum wage & industry award rates will rise by 5.75% from July 1
• ANZ, CBA, NAB & Westpac all expect Reserve Bank of Australia pause at next week’s meeting
• National Australia Bank expect a +25bp rate hike from the RBA, but not until August
• BoA non-farm payroll preview, looking for +200K & jobless rate of 3.4%
• ANZ raise its forecast for the RBA terminal rate to 4.35% (from 4.10%)
• Two outliers are forecasting another 75bp of rate hikes from the RBA, cash rate to 4.6%
• ECB minutes recap – many Eurozone central bank governors wanted a larger rate hike
• New Zealand Q1 2023 Terms of Trade data -1.5% q/q. Export and import prices both down q/q
• June Fed hike? The data-dependent Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is awaiting the NFP
• Non-farm payroll preview – Morgan Stanley looking for +170K, 3.4% jobless rate
• ICYMI: Bullard said rates “at the low end of what is arguably sufficiently restrictive”
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 1 Jun: USD moves lower on lower inflation/Fed skip
• ICYMI: BoA CEO says the FOMC has done enough tightening, its ‘won the battle’ on inflation
• US equities kick off June with big gains
• Trade ideas thread – Friday, 2 June 2023

There
was little news nor data flow to move around markets much at all
during the session with more traders in the timezone content to wait
it out until the US Non-farm Payroll report due later.

From
Japan we had comments crossing the news wires from both Bank of Japan
Governor Ueda and Japan finance minister Suzuki. Neither said
anything new, going over old ground. USD/JPY gained a few points to
just over 139.00 but soon dribbled back to be little net changed.

ANZ
raised their forecast ‘terminal’ rate for the Reserve Bank of
Australia, but still tipped an ‘on hold’ decision at next week’s,
June 6, policy meeting. Australia’s Fair Work Commission announced a
wage hike that’ll apply to a portion of the Australian work force,
see bullets above. These were was enough to send AUD/USD up to circa
0.6601. NZD/USD followed along a little higher also.

Oil
popped back up a little ahead of this weekend’s OPEC meeting,
without much of an obvious fresh catalyst.

The
US Senate passed the bill to lift the government’s $31.4
trillion debt ceiling.

Equities
gained in Japan, Australia, and mainland China, following on from a
strong Wall Street lead where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 rallied
on Thursday. Hong Kong stocks powered higher, a tech-driven rally.

Asian
equity markets:

• Japan’s
  Nikkei 225 +0.75%

• China’s
  Shanghai Composite +0.45%

• Hong
  Kong’s Hang Seng +3.1%

• South
  Korea’s KOSPI +0.8%

• Australia’s
  S&P/ASX 200 %+0.2