PBOC LEAVES RATES UNCHANGED

The PBOC has, for the thirteenth straight month, maintained its one-year LPR at 3.85% while keeping the 5-year LPR at 4.65%.

In response to the PBOC announcement and the Aussie labor market report, the AUD/USD dropped yet again, even though had managed to maintain its recovery mode aiming at 0.77750.

Earlier, the AUD had jumped up 0.17% recording its intraday high of 0.7741 following the Aussie job data. However, the AUS/USD has not yet conquered the key supports and will have to cross the hurdle of 0.7820 to kindle buyers’ interest.

On the other hand, NZD/USD picked up bids to 0.7170 following New Zealand Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s upbeat budget speech during the unveiling of the 2021 annual budget. In his speech, he specifically mentioned, “long-term effects of the pandemic are not as severe as previously thought.”

Gold price, ahead of FOMC minutes, showed a corrective decline of 0.15% and refreshed at $1866.67. The US-China and Aussie-Canberra discussions are the other risk catalysts that can pull the value even lower.

Based on quotations taken from inter-bank dealers and the previous day’s closing level, PBOC set the CNY mid-point at 6.4464 against the previous fix of 6.4255 and the previous close of 6.4338