Themes

• General mood is “risk off”
• RBA MPS acknowledges growth and inflation pressure, but remains dovish
• Currencies quiet in Asia ahead of U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls, Euro higher

What’s Moving

The only key event in Asia today was the release of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Monetary Policy Statement. The statement was on the dovish side, which was to be expected given recent comments from RBA Governor Lowe.

In the Statement, the RBA noted that economic activity and inflation had surprised to the upside, but that the RBA would remain patient on monetary policy.  

The upshot was that the AUD is little changed from closing New York levels. The other majors were also tightly traded ahead of tonight’s Non-Farm Payrolls.

The exception to this was the Euro, which did shoot up to a new three week high as locals got on board with the hawkish ECB from last night.

Data tonight sees:

• German Factory Orders (E: +0.4%)
• Euro-zone Retail Sales (E: -1.0%)
• Canadian Employment Change (E: -121.5k)
• U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls (E: +110k)