Sterling is under some selling pressing after a batch of weak economic data. PMI manufacturing dropped sharply to 51.9 in April, comparing to prior month's 54.4 and expectation of rise to 54.6. Mortgage approvals dropped to 61k in March versus expectation of 63k. M4 money supply rose 0.3% mom in March. US manufacturing data will be the main focus later in the day. ISM manufacturing is expected to rise to 52.0 in April.
Yen stays soft today even though data showed inflation rose for the first time in nearly a year. National CPI core rose to 2.2% yoy in March versus expectation of 2.0% yoy. Adjusted for last April's tax hike, CPI core rose to 0.2% yoy, up from Tuesday's 0.0% yoy. However, Tokyo CPI core came in at 0.4% yoy, in April, below expectation of 0.5% yoy. Also released from Japan, house holding spending dropped -10.6% yoy in March versus expectation of -11.8% yoy. Labor cash earnings rose 0.1% yoy in March versus expectation of 0.4% yoy. BoJ lowered inflation forecast yesterday and projected core CPI to be 0.8% this fiscal year, down from prior forecast of 1.0%. Also, the central bank now expected inflation to hit 2% target around April to September 2016, rather than this fiscal year. Nonetheless, BoJ governor Haruhiko Kuroda expressed his confidence that no further policy easing is needed.
From China, the official PMI manufacturing was unchanged at 50.1 in April. Non-manufacturing PMI dropped to 53.4. It's noted in the accompanying statement that the manufacturing sector is still facing "downward pressures". Economists generally expected that slowdown in the country's economy hasn't bottomed out yet. And the government would likely launch more stimulus later this year. From Australian, PPI rose 0.5% qoq, 0.7% yoy in Q1.