Asian equities opened the week generally lower on weaker than expected China data. The office PMI manufacturing dropped to 49.8 in January versus expectation of a rise to 50.3. That's the first contraction reading in more than two years. Economists noted that most of the sub-indices showed downward trend and indicated further slowdown in the economy. The official non-manufacturing PMI also dropped to 53.7, lowest since January 2014.
The HSBC manufacturing PMI was revised down to 49.7 in January. Overall, some analysts expect China to loosen policies to support growth and the PBoC could lower the reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points and cut the deposit rate by 25 basis points in the first quarter.
In Greece, prime minister Alexis Tsipras said over the weekend that "Despite the fact that there are differences in perspective, I am absolutely confident that we will soon manage to reach a mutually beneficial agreement, both for Greece and for Europe as a whole." Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said he wanted a new plan for fiscal stimulus to be in place by the end of May. And he preferred the repayment of existing international loan to be tied to Greece's ability to restore growth.
French finance minister Michael Sapin offered his support to Greece and said it needs a "new contract" with debtors. Meanwhile, US president Obama also said Greece needs a "growth strategy".
Looking ahead, manufacturing data is the main focus today. In European session, Swiss will release SVME PMI, eurozone will release PMI manufacturing revision, UK will also release PMI manufacturing. US will release ISM manufacturing, construction spending and personal income and spending.
Latest CFTC data showed that on January 27, traders added further bearish bets on euro and Aussie comparing to the prior week. Euro net shorts rose again to 184.7k contracts, up from 180.7k and hit another high in at least two years. Yen net short dropped to 64.7k. Sterling net shorts was relatively unchanged at 45.3k, close to highest level in more than a year. Aussie net shorts rose to 48.9k and was the highest in nearly a year. Canadian dollar net shorts indeed dropped to 24.0k, down from 29.1k.