Investing.com - The U.S. dollar recorded a slight uptick on Tuesday, maintaining its stability within a confined range as investors held back from major moves ahead of an impending U.S. inflation report this week. Meanwhile, the spotlight in Asia was firmly set on China's forthcoming trade statistics.
Analysts predict that July will witness a decline by approximately 12.5% in China's exports compared to last year, according to an economists' survey conducted by Reuters. This follows a similar trend seen in June with a drop of 12.4%, which is considered the most severe since the onset of COVID-19 pandemic early last year.
This crucial trade data precedes another key economic indicator - China's inflation rate, which is due tomorrow; market watchers are keenly observing for any additional signals pointing towards possible deflation within the world’s second-largest economy.
Before these numbers were released, there was insignificant movement observed in offshore yuan against the dollar at around 7.2039 per unit.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars - often regarded as liquid substitutes for yuan – revealed weakened positions during initial trading sessions across Asian markets.
Both currencies experienced mild decreases with Australia down by 0.05% at $0.6571 while New Zealand slipped by about 0.08% to $0.6102. Carol Kong from the Commonwealth Bank Of Australia (ASX:CBA) noted that this week’s financial figures would likely illustrate continued sluggishness within Chinese economic recovery efforts.
She further highlighted recent strong correlations between Australian/New Zealand currencies and yuan indicating potential future downturns for both 'Aussie' and 'Kiwi'.
In broader currency markets, general gains were witnessed for the U.S dollar including a notable rise against the Japanese yen (up by approx..37%) closing at nearly142 .98 yen/unit level recently. Japanese real wages have been continuously falling for past fifteen months until June due to persistent price increases; however nominal income growth continues unabated thanks largely to higher salaries among top earners coupled with expanding labor shortage issues
Meanwhile Sterling also dipped, losing 0.12%, Euro also depreciated marginally shedding roughly 0.10 %.