- Yuan devaluation claims ring hollow as currency nears 28-month high, Reuters says
- South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo Yun-cheol said USD/KRW mid-1,500 is “excessive”
- Australia May CPI preview: fuel drag to mask sticky underlying inflation
- Bitcoin price analysis: BTC repair still alive, but this warns of failed breakout
- PBOC sets USD/ CNY central rate at 6.8171 (vs. estimate at 6.7762)
- Katayama reaffirms Japan-US decisive action pact after Bessent talks, stays mum on yen
- OpenAI targets $100bn in ad revenue by end of decade, Semafor reports
- Japan PMI hits three-month high but input costs surge to near four-year peak
- AI, fiscal spending and credit growth to drive markets higher, UBS says
- Standard Chartered sees gold at $5,100 and S&P at 7,950 by mid-2027
- Australian business activity steadies in June but new orders keep falling, S&P Global says
- Liquidity squeeze, not rate hikes, is the near-term threat to stocks, says Morgan Stanley
- Danske Bank sees Brent at $80 this year, rules out return to pre-war lows
- Japan finance minister held emergency call with Bessent as yen nears 40-year low
- Fatal Texas Tesla crash puts Full Self-Driving technology under federal scrutiny
- Fed’s Goolsbee says inflation is well above target and is going the wrong way
- Warsh’s first Humphrey-Hawkins testimony will test his inflation resolve with lawmakers
Key points:
- Chicago Fed’s Goolsbee flagged services inflation as particularly concerning, saying the Fed needs to determine whether elevated price pressures are persistent or will fade as tariff effects ease and the Middle East conflict resolves
- Japan’s Finance Minister Katayama confirmed an overnight call with US Treasury Secretary Bessent on the yen; Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara later added Tokyo will take appropriate action against excessive FX moves if needed; USD/JPY briefly touched 161.9
- South Korea’s Finance Minister Koo called the won’s level around mid-1,500 per dollar “excessive” relative to fundamentals, blaming foreign equity profit-taking
- Australia’s flash composite PMI remained in contraction despite a headline improvement; business confidence hit its weakest level since the survey began a decade ago, excluding the pandemic
- Japan’s flash composite PMI hit a three-month high of 52.5 but input cost inflation accelerated to a near four-year peak on Middle East war pressures
- Japan’s Nikkei and South Korea’s Kospi both fell; Korea’s sidecar mechanism was triggered after a 5% futures drop halted algorithmic trading for five minutes
- At least 20 ships crossed the Strait of Hormuz in the past 24 hours; oil prices held near recent lows
- The Australian dollar slid to its lowest since April 8; the kiwi and gold were also notable session losers
- Goldman Sachs cuts its China Q2 GDP forecast to 4.5%
The session was dominated by currency stress and central bank signals. Goolsbee set the tone early, acknowledging that US inflation is moving in the wrong direction with services the most troubling component, while carefully leaving the door open to a more benign outcome if tariff effects prove temporary and the Middle East situation stabilises. The Fed remains in watch-and-wait mode, but his framing was hawkish enough to register.
The yen story escalated through the session. What began as a TBS report of an overnight Katayama-Bessent call became an official confirmation, then a separate warning from Chief Cabinet Secretary Kihara, the full toolkit of verbal intervention deployed in sequence. Markets listened politely and largely did nothing, which is itself a signal of how much the credibility bar has risen since Japan’s record intervention earlier this year.
Seoul added its own currency drama, with Finance Minister Koo’s “excessive” characterisation of the won a notably blunt piece of official communication. Equity markets in the region were already under pressure, with the Nikkei retreating after eight straight sessions of gains and the Kospi selling off sharply enough to trigger the sidecar mechanism. The Hormuz shipping data offered modest geopolitical reassurance, and oil’s proximity to recent lows reflected that, even as the broader risk mood across Asia remained fragile.
This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at investinglive.com.