Yahoo Finance

Earlier in the Day:

It’s was a relatively busy start to the day on the economic calendar this morning. The Japanese Yen and Aussie Dollar was in action early on, with economic data from China also in focus.

For the Japanese Yen

August’s finalized services PMI came in at 45.0, which was in line with prelim, while down from July’s 45.4.

According to the August survey,

• Activity fell back further in August, with restrictions on activity and a lack of customers weighing.

• New orders decreased again in August, delivering a 7^th consecutive monthly decline. The pace of decline was also more marked than in July, with new export orders seeing a material fall.

• Firms continued to scale back employment in line with reduced workloads. Staffing levels were down for a 6^th consecutive month.

• Business sentiment remained subdued. Confidence was slightly lower than in July.

The Japanese Yen moved from ¥106.241 to ¥106.212 upon release of the PMI. At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was down by 0.06% ¥106.24 against the U.S Dollar

For the Aussie Dollar

July trade figures were in focus. The trade surplus narrowed from A$8.202bn to A$4.607bn in July. Economists had forecast a narrowing to A$5.400bn.

According to the ABS,

• Goods and services credits fell A$1,604m (4%) to A$34,496m.

  • Non-rural goods fell A$1,527m (6%).

  • Rural goods fell A$539m (15%).

  • Net exports of goods under merchanting fell A$18m (38%).

  • Non-monetary gold rose A$1,252m (53%).

  • Services fell A$772m (12%).

• Goods and services debits rose A$1,939m (7%) to A$29,890m.

  • Capital goods rose A$999m (18%).

  • Consumption goods rose A$608m (7%).

  • Non-monetary gold rose A$300m (37%).

  • Intermediate and other merchandise goods rose A$165m (2%).

  • Services fell A$133m (3%).

The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.73146 to $0.73173 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar was down by 0.22% to $0.7322.

From China

The Caixin Services PMI slipped from 54.1 to 54.0 in August.

According to the August survey,

• Service sector activity continued to recovery in August.

• New order growth remained marked in spite of an easing from June’s recent record.

• Higher sales were largely driven by firmer domestic demand, as new export work fell for the 2^nd month in a row.

• Increased activity and sales led firms to expand their workforces for the 1^st time in 7-months.

• Optimism dipped to a 3-month low in August in spite of firms expecting business activity to be higher in 12-months’ time.

The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.73173 to $0.73255 upon release of the figures.

Elsewhere

At the time of writing, the Kiwi Dollar was down by 0.04% to $0.6769.