Yen posts another day of gains on risk aversion

Today’s Economic Data:

Later:

The Asian equity markets opened today on a mixed note with the Nikkei down -2.76% while the Shanghai composite gained a modest 0.89%. The Hang Seng was down -0.97% and the main theme of a stronger Yen carried on through to the start of the US trading session. On the currency side of things, the Asian markets saw the Kiwi post modest gains of 0.30%  for the day after the currency slipped to lows of 0.6238 yesterday. The Kiwi was lifted by better Fonterra data but the trade balance released few hours later kept the currency subdued. The Aussie continued its prolonged downtrend, losing -0.63% for the day, posting a near 5 day decline with no signs of recovery.

Data from the Asian session included the Japan flash manufacturing PMI which was soft at 50.9, below estimates of 51.3, while the all industries activity was up 0.2%, beating estimates of 0.1%.

The European session was geared up for the German Gfk and Ifo releases which came out mixed. While consumer climate was soft at 9.6, the Ifo business climate proved to be more positive, rising 108.5 beating estimates of 107.8. The Euro managed to continue its recovery since yesterday, which was triggered by a rather neutral tone from Mario Draghi. The Euro was up 0.50% for the day as the single currency was seen testing the highs near 1.124 at the time of writing. The Euro’s recovery was broad based gaining against all of its peers. Other data from Eurozone included Italy’s retail sales which grew 0.4% for the month.