The
session focus was on the official August PMI data from China’s
National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). As in July the manufacturing PMI
remained in contraction while the non-manufacturing in expansion.
Manufacturing improved from July and also beat expectations while the
non-manufacturing dipped a little from July and missed its estimate.
More in the bullets above.
The
data prompted a small jump for the Australian dollar and the Kiwi.
Some improving local data in Australia also helped. Australian Q2
business capital expenditure, for example, hit its highest in seven
and a half years, easing supply chain bottlenecks helped with
equipment investment, which hit a record high for the quarter.
USD/JPY
lost ground on the session. Data from Japan today indicated a poor
performance for industrial output in July. Estimates for August and
September are for improvement. The Japanese government downgraded its
assessment of the sector. Slowing demand both domestically and
globally was cited by a government spokesperson.
A
speaker from the Bank of Japan policy board gave no indication he was
keen on reducing easy policy any time soon.
Asian
equity markets:
-
Japan’s
Nikkei 225 +0.6% -
China’s
Shanghai Composite -0.4% -
Hong
Kong’s Hang Seng 0% -
South
Korea’s KOSPI -0.4% -
Australia’s
S&P/ASX 200 0%
