US equities closed sharply lower overnight as weighed down by selloff in Apple shares (NASDAQ:AAPL), weak economic data and lack of fresh stimulus from Japan's BoJ. DJIA closed down -210.79 pts, or -1.17% at 17830.76. S&P 500 lost -19.34 pts, or 0.92%, and closed at 2075.81. Yen jumped to 18 month high against Dollar, which is sold off broadly. The dollar index also took out recent low of 93.62 and reaches as low as 93.43 so far today. Weakness in dollar boosted gold up to 1280 and would probably resume medium term rebound. Crude oil, continue recent up trend and reaches as high as 45.95 so far.
In China, the PBoC raised the CNY reference rate by 0.6% to 6.4589 per Dollar today. That was the largest rise in fixing since 2005. However, that is seen as a response to the selloff in Dollar yesterday, rather than a change in policy. Some economists noted that the trade weighted basket for yuan would continue to depreciate at a modest pace as a trend. Nonetheless, the offshore yuan is relatively steady at 6.483 and reaction is muted.
On the data front, New Zealand building permits dropped -0.8% mom in March. NBNZ business confidence rose to 6.2 in April. Australia PPI dropped -0.2% qoq in Q1, rose 1.2% yoy. UK Gfk consumer sentiment dropped to -3 in April. Eurozone CPI will be the main focus in European session and is expected to turn negative again in April. Eurozone will also release unemployment rate while Swiss will release KOF, UK will release mortgage approvals and M4. US will release personal income and spending, Chicago PMI. Canada will release GDP, IPPI and RMPI.