With no significant economic data in the Asian session, investors turned their attention to US labor market data due within hours.
Highlights of economic events this morning:
- Australia's PPI rose by 0.6% in the last quarter of last year.
- Bitcoin breaks the $ 9000 barrier and continues to decline.
Earlier in the day, the Bank of Japan increased purchases of five- to ten-year government bonds from 410 billion to 450 billion yen. The move followed a 10-year Treasury yield with a 0.1% contraction. The Japanese yen fell briefly before demand rose again.
As for the Japanese Nikkei, the Nikkei fell by 1.17% to 23210, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell by 0.01% to 32640, the Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.41% to 3432.80. While the Australian ASX 200 rose by 0.60% to 6099.5.
On the other hand, gold fell by 0.05% to $ 1347.70 an ounce, while Brent crude rose by 0.10% to $ 69.77 a barrel and West Texas crude by 0.11% to $ 66.00 a barrel.
As for major currency movements, the Aussie was the most heavily traded currency, dropping by 0.42% to 0.8000, the Japanese Yen dropped by 0.25% to 87.72. While the AUDCAD fell by 0.31% to 0.9828, and the AUDCHF was down by 0.39% to 0.7418.
