Asia got off to an inauspicious start this evening with Japan printing a disappointing 1.6% drop in GDP - heading for its fifth recession in 6 years... so much for Abenomics, but, of course, Amari spewed forth some standard propaganda that he expects Japan to recover moderately (and Japanese stocks popped modestly assuming moar QQE). Then Malaysia continued its collapse with the Ringgit down another 1% hitting fresh 17-year lows and stocks dropping further, as the Asian Currency crisis continues [8]. Heading into the China open, offshore Yuan signaled further devaluation but the CNY Fix printed very modestly stronger at 6.3969; and following last week's best gains in 2 months, Chinese stocks are plunging at the open after Chinese farmers extend their streak of margin debt increases. Finally, WTI Crude drifted back to a $41 handle in early futures trading.
Asian Contagion...
Japan heads for Quintuple Dip recession...
[9]
The Asian currency crisis continues (led by Malaysia) [8]
- *MALAYSIAN RINGGIT DROPS 0.9% TO 4.1155 PER DOLLAR
- *MALAYSIA'S KEY STOCK INDEX OPENS DOWN 0.4% AT 1,590.81
[10]
But broad-based USD strength against Asian FX continues...
[11]
Then China opened..
Great news - Chinese farmers and grandmas are releveraging!!
- *SHANGHAI MARGIN DEBT HAS LONGEST STREAK OF RISE IN TWO MONTHS
Seriously!
And Chinese futures appeared to mini-flash-crash...
[12]
As China revalues modestly..
- *CHINA SETS YUAN REFERENCE RATE AT 6.3969 AGAINST U.S. DOLLAR (against 6.3975 fix Friday)
- *PBOC'S YUAN REFERENCE RATE SET WITHIN 0.1% OF FRIDAY'S CLOSE
Offshore Yuan leaking weaker...
[13]
And finally WTI Crude continues to drift lower... once again trading with a $41 handle...
[14]
So while China may have succeeded in jawboning/intervening the yuan back to some semblance of (temporary) stability, the global reverberations look to have just begun.
Charts: Bloomberg
