The US Dollar remained close to a 19-month peak during Asian trade on Monday, largely as safe haven assets were driven higher in the wake of growing concerns over a worldwide economic slowdown. In China, the latest economic data has been largely disappointing, with industrial production and retail sales numbers for November coming in well below expectations at 8.1 and 5.4, respectively against forecasts of 8.8 and 5.9. One analyst in Hong Kong decried the figures as “ugly,” and warned market players that the Chinese economy was likely to get worse, given that all of the impacts from the Sino-US trade war hadn't yet been felt.
As reported at 10:04 am (JST) in Tokyo, the USD/JPY was trading at 113.4690 Yen, a gain of 0.1050%, not too far from the session peak of 113.500 Yen. The AUD/USD was trading lower at $0.7174, down 0.08% while the NZD/USD was trading at $0.6793, down 0.1155%.
Market Moving Events Ahead
Later in the day, markets will focus on the Eurostat release of personal inflation data for the Eurozone. Currently, analysts are predicting that CPI and Core CPI are likely to remain unchanged for November, both on an annualized basis and on a monthly basis. Looking ahead to Wednesday, markets expect the Federal Reserve to announce one more rate hike of 25 basis points; that likelihood has already been priced in by markets. What FX traders will be looking more closely at is the outlook for interest rates, especially given the threat of a global slowdown.