The yuan is under pressure again

Investing.com

The offshore yuan is under pressure again.

China's currency is down by 0.4% at 6.8762 per dollar as of 7:56 a.m. ET after earlier slipping by about 0.5% to 6.8844 per dollar. 

This follows Friday's drop of 0.9%, which was the biggest in about a year. Meanwhile, the onshore yuan is weaker by about 0.3% at 6.9390 per dollar.

"Last week’s RMB short squeeze coming on the back of sharply higher RMB-denominated short-term funding costs bear goods news. It shows that China’s authorities pre-empted the increased accumulation of outflow risks, which is good news for risk-takers," wrote a Morgan Stanley team led by Hans W. Redeker.

"However, should China fail to remain on top of this issue, it may have the potential to undermine the global reflation trade, with falling commodity prices acting as a catalyst."

Additionally, China's foreign currency holdings dropped for a sixth consecutive month to a new five-year low of $3.01 trillion in December. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange said in a statement that the central bank's efforts to stabilize the yuan was the main reason for the drop, according to Bloomberg.

As for the rest of the world, here's the scoreboard as of 8:19 a.m. ET:

• The British pound is down by 1.3% at 1.2130 against the dollar after UK Prime Minister Theresa May said in an interview with Sky News on Sunday that Brexit will be about "getting the right relationship" with the European Union and "not about keeping bits of membership."
• The euro is weaker by 0.2% at 1.0513 against the dollar after data showed that German industrial production rose 0.4% month-over-month in November, below expectations of a 0.6% gain. Moreover, German exports rose by 3.9% month-over-month in November, significantly above the forecasted 0.5%.
• The Russian ruble is lower by 0.2% at 59.7430 per dollar, while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is down by 2.1% at $55.92 per barrel.
• The US dollar index is up by 0.2% at 102.38 ahead of a quite data day. Consumer credit will be out at 3 p.m. ET.
• The Japanese yen is up by 0.3% at 116.71 per dollar.

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