ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD higher across the major FX board

• Federal Reserve speakers on Friday include Bowman, Kashkari, Logan, Goolsbee, Barr
• BoE Chief Economist Pill speaking Firday, dove Dinghra also speaking
• Ex-BOJ Watanabe says Bank of Japan must avoid raising interest rates to combat a weak yen,
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 7.1011 (vs. estimate at 7.2102)
• The US will impose tariffs on EVs from China after review
• Heads up for the approaching weekend – China releases April inflation data on Saturday
• Japan’s finance minister Suzuki says is closely watching FX moves
• Japan data – March Household Spending +1.2% m/m (expected -0.3%)
• Goldman Sachs president Waldron is expecting a soft landing for the US economy
• UBS expects US inflation will begin to trend lower soon
• Business NZ Manufacturing PMI (April) 48.9 vs. prior 47.1
• Long list of oil support: risk on, technical, inventory, Mid East, China, restocking
• Analysts tip a June Bank of England rate cut. Or August 😉
• Forexlive Americas FX news wrap 9 May: USD reverses to the downside after weaker claims
• CBA has cut its forecasts for the Australian dollar – central banks key
• The Bank of England still has cold feet on rate cuts, reluctant to commit
• Yellen says inflation has fallen substantially, but not enough for rate cuts yet
• S&P index closes at its highest level in a month
• Trade ideas thread – Friday, 10 May, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas

After
losing ground on Thursday US time the US dollar retraced a little
during Asian morning trade. EUR, AUD, NZD, GBP, CAD, CHF all lost
ground. Yen also, but I’ll come back to that.

The
Australian and New Zealand dollars took a bit of an (admittedly small) extra hit on news that next week the Biden’s administration is set to
unveil a wide-ranging decision on China tariffs targeting key
sectors, including electric vehicles, batteries and solar equipment,
with new imposts. The
targeted nature contrasts with Trump’s blanket approach to tariffs,
but one thing is for sure, in this election year moves against China
like this are sure to ratchet higher from both.

From
Japan today we had data showing weak March
household spending. The
Bank of Japan have been expecting this in their forecasts, which
muted the FX impact. Still, after hitting lows under 155.30 USD/JPY
has since bounced back to look at 155.75. An ex-BOJ official says
raising rates now further to support the yen would be ill-advised,
that services inflation was already weakening.

Earlier
jawboning from Finance Minister Suzuki to support JPY was shrugged
off.

As
a heads up, over the weekend (at 0130 GMT on Saturday, which is 2130
on Friday, US Eastern time) China will be publishing its April
inflation data, CPI and PPI. There is more on this in the linked post
above.