Aussie, kiwi drop after fresh data; Asian shares lower and crude oil declines

The commodity-exposed Australian and New Zealand dollars fell on Thursday as investors also eyed consumer and producer price data out of China.

The Aussie fell despite strong jobs data. The overall unemployment rate in the country dropped to 6.2% as expected from from 6.3% and 11,500 jobs were added, compared to an expected 5,000 under a participation rate of 65% as seen.

In China consumer prices rose 0.5%, higher than the 0.4% gain seen in August and producer prices fell 5.9%, ore than the expected fall of 5.5% year-on-year.

In Japan, corporate goods price index for August dipped 0.6%, compared to a 0.4% fall seen month-on-month, while core machinery orders dipped 3.6% in July month-on-month, well off the 3.7% gain seen.

The New Zealand dollar slumped in Asia on Thursday after the central bank, as expected, cut its overnight cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%.

NZD/USD traded at 0.6260, down 2.11%, before recovering to 0.6274.

AUD/USD was also weaker at 0.7011, down 0.10%.

USD/JPY was quoted at 120.68, higher 0.13%.

The yen sank after reported comments by a Japanese ruling party lawmaker put renewed focus on the possibility of more monetary easing by the Bank of Japan.

Traders said the yen fell after Bloomberg quoted Japanese ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kozo Yamamoto as saying in an interview that the BOJ's policy meeting on Oct. 30 would be a "good opportunity" for additional monetary easing.

Elsewhere, crude oil prices edged lower in Asia on Thursday amid continued oversupply in the oil market and as shares in China and Japan fell.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, light, sweet crude futures for delivery in October traded at $43.70 a barrel, down $0.31 in the Globex electronic session.

October Brent crude on London’s ICE Futures exchange fell $0.54 to $47.04 a barrel.

The Shanghai Composite Index was last down about 1%, despite better-than-expected China inflation figures.

Japanese stocks reversed sharp day-earlier gains, with the Nikkei Stock Average off 3.1% after jumping 7.7% on Wednesday.

On Wall Street, U.S. stocks dropped initial gains Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average declining 239.11 points, or 1.4%, to 16253.57, dragged by uncertainty over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s next rate move and China’s inability to firm up its markets.