The dollar remains under pressure in the currency markets

Asian markets are trading cautiously this morning as investors await new macroeconomic data from China, which will indicate whether the growth of the world’s second-largest economy has stabilized.

On the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Nikkei index was down 0.3 percent at 7:30 AM, and stock prices in Shanghai and Australia fell by the same amount.

Stock indices in South Korea and Hong Kong, on the other hand, rose between 0.1 and 0.4 percent, so the MSCI index of Asia-Pacific stocks, excluding Japan, was almost unchanged at 7:30 AM compared to yesterday, when it rose by 1 percent.

Cautious trading is a result of the lack of significant news that could move the markets, as well as yesterday’s restrained trading on Wall Street, where indices only slightly increased after three days of decline.

Yesterday, investors were encouraged by better-than-expected data on the growth of Chinese imports and exports, which eased fears of a significant slowdown in the growth of the world’s second-largest economy.

Investors hope that today’s industrial production data, which is expected to be released, will show that the growth of the Chinese economy has stabilized.

“The investment climate is not bad, considering that economic data from the US and China are improving. I hope that new reports from China will serve as a market driver,” says Kang Hyun-gie, an analyst at IM Investment & Securities.

Meanwhile, the dollar remains under pressure in the currency markets, albeit less than in previous days, due to uncertainty regarding the reduction of stimulus monetary measures by the US central bank.

This morning, the dollar exchange rate is around 96.45 yen, while yesterday at this time it was 96.70 yen.

The price of the euro against the US dollar rose from yesterday’s 1.3335 to 1.3380 dollars, and at one point, for the first time in seven weeks, it even peeked above the level of 1.34 dollars.

Against the Japanese currency, the euro exchange rate increased from yesterday’s 128.80 to 129.10 yen.

After falling by about 90 cents yesterday, this morning the futures price of oil on the New York Stock Exchange rose by 80 cents to 104.20 dollars per barrel.