Overnight

It is another mixed session for stocks in Asia overnight as investors waited to what the Reserve Bank of Australia rate-setting meeting would bring. Their answer: The bank left interest rates on hold at the record low of 1.5% set last month causing little change in the Australian dollar which last was trading around 76.2 cents to the U.S. dollar.

Earlier the dollar had jumped up on stronger than expected economic news. One source reported, however, that "...outgoing Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens hinted in his last speech a couple of weeks ago that the RBA had anticipated that the banks would not pass on all of the rate reduction when it made its August decision.

The Australia's ASX 200 traded down 0.18 percent with a decline in the heavily-weighed financials sub-index. But the energy sector trade up 0.53 percent, along with the materials edging  up 0.19%. The Nikkei 225 tweaked up 0.22%, the Kospi was up 0.23 percent and in /china the two composites split the session with the Shanghai flat and the Shenzhen up slightly 0.21%. The Hang Seng was off 0.1% and the yen was down 0.4% against the dollar.


The WSJ reported: The yen was recently down 0.4% against the dollar, which remained weak after the release of weaker-than-expected U.S. jobs data on Friday, reducing the likelihood of an imminent interest rate increase by the Federal Reserve. A weaker yen helps boost the competitiveness of Japanese exports. 

The Journal also noted that "... the Philippines, the stock market benchmark PSEi was the region’s biggest decliner, falling 0.7%, after U.S. President Barack Obama abruptly canceled a first meeting with Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte in a rare diplomatic rupture. Analysts point to concerns that rising tensions between the two close allies could impact future trade deals. The meeting was called off following bombastic comments from the Philippine leader on Monday demanding that their discussion not touch on his approach to human rights and referring to the U.S. leader in Tagalog with an expression widely translated to mean “son of a bitch.”
 
Weak jobs numbers and uncertainty about future restring rate hikes in the U.S. continues to trouble many investors. On Wednesday San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President John Williams will deliver a speech on the economic outlook that should gather some attention.