Themes

· General mood is “risk off”

· U.S. and U.K. ban Russian oil exports

· U.S. Trade Balance at -$89.7bln

What’s Moving

It was a largely consolidatory day on currencies in overnight trade, with news that the U.K. and the U.S. would ban Russian oil exports largely as expected and having little immediate impact on dealings.

The upshot of the day was that the Euro clawed back some of the recent losses, while profit taking on commodity currencies weighed heavily on the AUD and NZD.

Thoughts

Nothing major is expected in Asia today with the market expected to continue to consolidate recent levels ahead of fresh impetus from the Ukrainian / Russian conflict.

Asian session data today sees:

· Japanese GDP (E: +1.4%)

· Chinese CPI (E: +0.9%)

While RBA Governor Lowe is slated to speak.