ForexLive Asia-Pacific FX news wrap: USD a touch weaker on the first session of the year

• South Korea to ease FX trading rules, trying to attract further fund inflows
• China mainland and Hong Kong equites have traded much lower to start 2025
• The yuan has hit its highest since mid-October 2022 (using its trade-weighted value)
• Caixin China Manufacturing PMI (December 2024) 50.5 vs. expected 51.7
• ICYMI – Why does China have two sets of PMIs and why are both valuable?
• PBOC sets USD/ CNY reference rate for today at 7.1879 (vs. estimate at 7.2916)
• Singapore’s economy grew 4% in 2024, surging ahead of 2023’s +1.3%
• USD/JPY above 157.70 in thin liquidity trade
• Tokyo Stock Exchange/Japan bond market holiday on Thursday, January 2, 2025
• South Korea exports accelerated in December – “Grows on Demand From China” cited
• Australia final manufacturing PMI, December 2024: 47.8 (prior 49.4)
• Asian market holidays on Thursday, January 2, 2025
• A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Trump International Hotel Las Vegas
• European Central Bank President Lagarde says hopes inflation hits 2% in 2025
• Trade ideas thread – Thursday, 2 January, insightful charts, technical analysis, ideas
• Thursday (Asia) morning open levels – indicative forex prices – 02 January 2025
• New Orleans shaken by deadly car attack: Dozens killed and injured

USD/JPY
kicked off the new year by trading higher, to circa 157.75, early
here in Asia before losing all of it and dropping back towards 157.00
as I post. USD/CHF weakened to under 0.9050. EUR, AUD, GBP, NZD all
gained against the big dollar in the opening session also.

News
flow was limited. Over the break we had domestic terrorism incidents
in the US with mass murders in New Orleans and further casualties in
Las Vegas.

Chinese
equities, both mainland and Hong Kong, slid Thursday.

The
only data of note today was from China, the December 2024 Caixin
Manufacturing PMI came in at a miss on estimates and down from
November:

• Weaker
  supply and demand, with production and new orders at three-month
  lows.
• External
  demand weakened with contraction for New Export Orders
• Consumer
  goods exports saw some growth
• Employment
  continued to rise but remained below critical levels
• Rising
  input costs
• Contraction
  in output prices
• More detail in the points above

Concerns
over potential US tariff increases and broader global economic
challenges loom ahead.

Despite
this, the yuan trade-weighted index hit its highest since mid-October
2022. Yes, the yuan is suffering against the super-strong USD, but not as much as some other FX is.

The
US S&P 500 ES futures opened for the year with a gap up but soon
dropped before recovering. As I post its net a little higher on the
session:

This article was written by Eamonn Sheridan at www.forexlive.com.