- Forex: EUR/USD drifted lower in Asia, with nervousness about the Irish referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon amendments weighing on the pair. InBev's decision to launch a $46B deal for Anheuser-Busch also dragged on EUR/USD. USD/JPY traded sharply higher, with strong fixing demand for the USD in Tokyo supporting the pair. EUR/JPY drifted down to 166.00, with options-related selling expected to limit upside beyond 167.00. EUR/CHF is little changed, with decent support expected between at 1.5975 (38.2% Fibo retracement) and at 1.6015 (the 100-day MA).

- Australia's job market weaker than expected in May: (AU MAY EMPLOYMENT CHANGE: -19.7K V 13.5K expected, prior revised to 37.5K from 25.4K; Unemployment Rate: 4.3% v 4.2% expected, 4.3% prior; Employment declines for the first time in 19 months) "The Reserve Bank will be very happy with these numbers," said Brian Redican at Macquarie. "We've seen retail sales decline like they wanted. Confidence has been curtailed. And now the final peg off the wall is this slackening in the labor market." Analysts pointed out that this drop comes after a very strong run and is mainly concentrated in New South Wales, so it's not a sign of serious weakness. Nevertheless, the data underlined that the Reserve Bank of Australia will leave rates unchanged, and AUD/USD dropped below 0.9400, taking out yesterday's low and a 61.8% fibo retracement level at 0.9430/35.

- Australian inflation expectations on the rise: (AU JUNE CONSUMER INFLATION EXPECTATION: 5.9% V 5.2% prior, meaning that Australian consumers expect prices to rise 5.9% over the next 12 months) The survey showed that the proportion of survey respondents expecting annual inflation to fall within the Reserve Bank of Australia's target band of 2%-3% decreased to 8.0% in June from 9.5% in May. "June's median expected inflation figure of 5.9 per cent is the highest since the monthly survey commenced in June 1993," Melbourne Institute Research Fellow Sam Tsiaplias said. "The proportion of consumers expecting inflation to fall within the Reserve Bank's target band fell for the sixth consecutive month to its lowest point since June 2000."

- The Bank of Korea left interest rates unchanged at 5.0%, as widely expected. The central bank said the inflation risk is larger than the risk of an economic slowdown, but they added that a warning on inflation does not signal a higher probability of rate hikes. They also said that economic slowdown pressure is still modest.

- Chinese consumer price inflation cools in May: (CH MAY CPI YOY: 7.7% V 8.0% expected, 8.5% prior) The data marks the first significant break in a year-long trend of sharply rising prices, good news for the government that has identified inflation as China's biggest economic risk. "This is a good turning point," said Gene Ma, chief economist at China Economic Monitor. "Because of past policies to boost food, especially pork production, I think we'll see the CPI dropping further in the coming months and average 5.5 to 6 percent for the whole year."

- New Zealand manufacturing activity slows down in May: (NZ MAY BUSINESS NZ PMI: 49.3 v 51.5 prior, prior revised from 51.4) "Three-quarters of manufacturers are working through issues involving a global slowdown, a high New Zealand dollar and a flat domestic market," Business NZ's chief executive Phil O'Reilly said. The NZD showed little reaction to the data, since the market already expects the RBNZ to start easing interest rates by September.

- Equities: At 0:08 EDT Japan's Nikkei is -2.12%, the S&P/ASX200 is -2.23%, South Korea's KOSPI is -1.67%, and the Shanghai Composite index is -3.25%. The S&P500 futures contract gained +0.16% since the U.S. close, last trading at 1,337.90. Chinese investors, worried by inflationary pressures, dumped stocks in Shanghai. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite index crashed below 2,930 after starting the session around 3,030. The Nikkei dipped below the 14,000 handle, tracking Wall Street's dismal session. Exporters and financials are dragging the Nikkei lower, while resource stocks and financials are under pressure in Sydney. Shares of investment bank Babcock & Brown are lower by more than -10% on press reports that the stock is being targeted by short-selling hedge funds. At the time of writing, Babcock's market cap is A$2.63B, but if this value falls below A$2.5B it could force the company to violate some of its loan covenants. Blue-chip stocks generally traded lower in Seoul, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng index tracked declines in Shanghai.

- Commodities: Nymex crude oil prices lost -0.67% between 18:00 EDT and 0:07 EDT, last trading at $135.45/bbl. Spot gold is lower by -0.65%, last trading at $877.20/oz.