The yuan closed a tad weaker against the dollar on Thursday while China and the United States exchanged the usual political rhetoric on currency and trade issues during an ongoing visit to the United States by Chinese leader-in-waiting Xi Jinping.
The People's Bank of China fixed the yuan's mid-point weaker and near the key 6.3 per dollar level, pulling it back from a record high last Friday, a move that could signal a desire to keep the yuan in a narrow range over the near term. Spot yuan ended at 6.3016 versus the dollar, compared with Wednesday's close of 6.3000 after the PBOC set the yuan's mid-point weaker at 6.2991 against Wednesday's 6.2958.
The PBOC set the mid-point at an all-time high of 6.2937 per dollar last Friday, guiding the yuan up to a record high of 6.2884 the same day, which markets construed as a goodwill gesture to the United States ahead of Xi's visit this week. In the offshore non-deliverable forward (NDF) market, one-year NDFs implied yuan appreciation of 0.19 percent on Thursday afternoon, down from 0.29 percent implied on Wednesday.