MNI:AUSTRALIA DEC TRADE BALANCE A$+3373

* MNI:AUSTRALIA DEC TRADE BALANCE A$+3373

JAPAN DATA: Offshore Investors Buy Most Japan Bonds Since April 2025

The stand out in the Japan weekly flow update (to the week ending Jan 30, last Friday), was the surge in offshore buying of local bonds. The +2trln in in net buying was the strongest weekly inflow since mid April last year. Since the start of the year we have seen net buying each week by offshore investors, bringing cumulative inflows to just over 5.2trln for this period. Offshore investors may be attracted to the yield pick up in JGBs, and at this stage are not put off by increased volatility and concerns around the fiscal outlook. Diversification flows could also be playing a role. Near term focus for JGBs rests with today's 30yr auction, then the weekend election, where opinion polls are in favour of PM Takaichi's LDP party. * Offshore investors also continued to buy local stocks. Like on the bond side, we have seen inflows in each week so far in 2026. Japan stock indices sit just off recent highs. * In terms of Japan outbound flows, we saw local investors pick up the pace in terms of outflows to overseas bonds and equities. Since the start of the year, the flow to overseas bonds has been modestly positive to both of these segments. Table 1: Japan Weekly Offshore Investment Flows --------------------------------------------------------------- Billion Yen Week ending Jan 30 Prior Week Foreign Buying Japan Stocks 494.6 329.5 Foreign Buying Japan Bonds 2081.1 377.9 Japan Buying Foreign Bonds 713.7 190.4 Japan Buying Foreign Stocks 454.6 -156 Source: Bloomberg Finance L.P./MNI

US DATA: BLS Reschedules JOLTS For Thursday, NFPs/CPI Delayed A Few Days

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has rescheduled the following releases following the government-shutdown related delay - link: https://www.bls.gov/bls/2025-lapse-revised-release-dates.htm * JOLTS to Thu Feb 5 (was Feb 3) at 1000ET * Nonfarm payrolls to Wed Feb 11 (was Feb 6) at 0830ET * CPI (and Real Earnings) to Fri Feb 13 (was Feb 11) at 0830ET * Presumably they both need a little more time to compile CPI - and in any case wouldn't have wanted the inflation and rescheduled Employment Situation report to clash. * We also expect weekly jobless claims data to be published Thursday as usual.

US DATA: ADP Revisions See Healthcare As A Major Driver, Echoing Payrolls

The wide-ranging revisions have seen the education & healthcare sector provide a much larger contribution, more closely reflecting trends in BLS private sector job creation. * Education & healthcare jobs increased a cumulative 642k over 2025 vs the 28k previously estimated. * This net revision of +614k across 2025 was in stark contrast to most industries considering the cumulative revision of -216k. The next largest positive revision was other services at +39k whilst the largest downward revision was trade, transportation & utilities at -325k. * The BLS private payrolls data have for some time shown a large contribution from health & social assistance, rising 49k on average in the three months to December vs -19k for all other private industries. * The broader ADP category of education & healthcare has now increased an average of 58k per month in the three months to January vs -13k for other industries. * This reliance on healthcare has received plenty of attention, including Governor Bowman on Jan 30 (link: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/speech/bowman20260130a.htm): "Despite some tentative signs of the unemployment rate leveling off, it seems too early to say that the labor market has stabilized,... Job gains have been concentrated in just a few nonbusiness service industries that are less cyclically sensitive, with health care accounting for all private job gains last quarter."