WARSAW: Central European assets fell again on Friday, knocked down by US President Donald Trump's announcement that he would impose 10% tariffs on $300 billion of Chinese products next month.
Coming just a day after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell suggested the first U.S rate cut in over a decade was not the start of a lengthy series, Trump's announcement was a fresh blow to risk-sensitive emerging-market assets.
At 0750 GMT, the Hungarian forint was down 0.19% against the euro at 327.68. The Polish zloty shed 0.06% to 4.3107. The Czech crown was at 25.795, near the 14-month low hit on Thursday.
"In our view current levels (above 4.31 after the Trump decision) could trigger some demand for the zloty," Santander analysts said in a note, adding that information about tariffs against China is generally negative for the emerging market currencies.
"If non-farm payrolls surprise to the upside (forecasts are rather low), the market could postpone its pricing of cuts in the US and this could weigh on the zloty again."
U.S non-farm payrolls will be announced at 1230 GMT.
Stocks mostly tracked global shares lower. Prague's PX index shed 0.9% and Poland's benchmark WIG 20 index fell 0.6% as of 0806 GMT.
Czech 10-year bond yields fell to their lowest since September 2017 at 1.145. Polish 10-year yields fell 7 basis points to 2.129.
On Thursday, the Czech National Bank (CNB) left its two-week repo rate at 2.00%, and signalled rates would remain unchanged in coming quarters, as momentum in the domestic economy offsets monetary easing abroad.
"We do not change our forecast for this year now and still expect stability of rates," Erste Group analyst Jiri Polansky said in a note. "The CNB will be cautious and wait to see how the situation around the Brexit and a possibility of an increase of US trade tariffs on EU cars develops."
In Hungary, calendar-adjusted retail sales rose by an annual 5.2% in June after a 2.6% increase in May, the Central Statistics Office (KSH) said on Friday.
"At first sight, this looks strong enough, but compared to what we've been used to in the past 18 months, it is definitely a sign of weaker activity," ING analyst Peter Virovacz said in a note, adding he expects consumption to slow, curbing growth.
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