ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD gains ahead of the FOMC later

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It
was an active day for data in Asia, characterised by a net gain for the
US dollar across the majors board.
</p><p>From
Japan today we had the ‘Summary of Opinions’ from the Bank of
Japan January meeting (the
full minutes of the meeting will follow on March 25). The Summary was
sparse with reports on various opinions of individual members but
with no guide as to the collective consensus. The usual noises were
made about continuing with easy policy, patiently maintaining
monetary easing. And that are signs of achieving target inflation.
</p><p>USD/JPY
dropped after the Summary to lows under 147.25 but has since
rebounded to be net higher on the session.
</p><p>The
next item of interest was from Australia, where official Q4 2024
inflation fell lower than expected and much lower than in Q3, and
indeed to its lowest in two years. The
improvement was such that it appears to take further rate hikes from
the Reserve Bank of Australia off the table (unless deterioration is
once again seen in the future, of course). Its way too early to think
of rate cuts though, with pundits and the Treasurer saying there is
still work to be done getting back to target (for the RBA this the 2
– 3 % band).</p><p>AUD/USD
dropped away after the data and is not too far from its session low
as I update circa 0.6572. As said in the headline, though, it was a
session of US dollar strength more widely. EUR, GBP, CHF, NZD, CAD
and JPY are all lower against the big dollar.
</p><p>From
China we had a little improvement for the official National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS) PMIs for January. The manufacturing PMI still
remains in contraction, its fourth month in a row and for 9 of the
past 10 months. USD/CNH is little changed on the session. Chinese
equities, both mainland and Hong Kong, are softer again on the day.
</p><p>US
equity index futures fell below their Tuesday RTH lows after earnings
releases late in the US afternoon.
</p>

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.