InvestingLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: JPY gaps on Japan election; NZD slips on CPI

The Japanese yen gapped higher in early Monday trade as results came in from Japan’s Upper House election. Prime Minister Ishiba’s ruling coalition suffered a major blow, losing its majority in the upper chamber — having already lost control of the lower house in October. With minority government in both chambers now, Japan looks set for a period of political uncertainty.

USD/JPY briefly dipped below 147.80 in thin early trade, prior to the open in Sydney, Singapore, and Hong Kong. However, the move quickly began to reverse, with the pair rebounding above 148.60 before settling into a 148.30–148.55 range for the rest of the session. Japanese markets were closed for the Marine Day holiday, further thinning yen liquidity.

New Zealand’s Q2 inflation data showed annual CPI rising 2.7% y/y (vs 2.8% expected) and 0.5% q/q (vs 0.6% expected). Core measures were mixed, with the trimmed mean slowing to 0.5% q/q from 0.8%. NZD/USD slipped on the release, eventually hitting lows around 0.5940. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s preferred Sectoral Factor Model, released later in the session, showed inflation easing to 2.8% y/y from 2.9% in Q1, with non-tradeable inflation dropping to 3.7% from 4.0% — keeping August rate cut expectations alive.

Meanwhile, the People’s Bank of China left its Loan Prime Rates unchanged as expected:

1-year LPR at 3.00%
5-year LPR at 3.50%

Outside of JPY and NZD, major FX pairs traded in relatively tight, rangebound fashion.

Asia-Pac
stocks:

Hong
Kong (Hang Seng) +0.3%

Japan
(Nikkei 225) Japan
markets were closed for a the Marine Day holiday

Shanghai
Composite +0.4%

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.