Asian markets continued their rout in today’s opening, with the Shanghai Index falling by more than 5% at one point, while the Shenzhen Composite collapsed by 6.5%. This caused the Yen to briefly strengthen in early trading, with USDJPY opening with a gap down and falling to a 4-month low of 116.70, though it has given up all of its gains since. Meanwhile, the Asian market turmoil has also taken its toll on oil prices, which have fallen a further 2% in early trading thus far and triggered USDCAD to appreciate to levels not seen since 2003, currently just above 1.4150. Lastly, the USD-Index was little changed on Friday despite the US economy adding a whopping 292K new jobs, smashing estimates of 203K, as average hourly earnings were unchanged from November’s report. Today is a slow day data wise, though risk-off sentiment from the Asian session this morning may induce some unexpected volatility. The US will publish labour market conditions later this afternoon, while Canada is scheduled to also release business outlook survey data. |
