The main release today was Korean CPI inflation for August, which remained firm. Japan tax revenue ticked down last month, but the uptrend of recent years remains intact. However, the monetary base is falling fast. Also today, a comprehensive guide and online model to Japan's fiscal position.

A busy day of data today, with regional PMIs, Q2 profits data for Japan, and foreign trade in August for Korea. Japan is leading in both relative manufacturing activity and prices. Taiwan activity is also strong, and not benefiting from the ccy appreciation that is dampening input prices in Korea.

The PMIs continue to show no change in China's economic cycle. By contrast, the cycle in Japan is improving, and in Korea output, capex and fiscal revenue in July were all strong.

Services trade in China in July suggests net trade continued to make a positive contribution to GDP growth at the start of Q3. In Japan, Tokyo CPI in August confirms the expected rise in inflation in 2H. Exports early in the month were strong, but Toyota sales through July look to be slowing.

The strength in services PPI inflation in Japan is related to the Iran war and the weakness of the JPY. However, wage growth indicates more upside for PPI inflation in sectors with high labour intensity. The BOK's August survey, business sentiment in Korea continued to rise.

Lots today: trade volumes and prices for July in China; underlying inflation trends in Japan; consumer confidence for August in Korea; and industrial production and retail sales in July in Taiwan.

Upstream prices in China have picked up again during August as global energy and copper prices rebounded. An unemployment rate below 3.5% in Taiwan in July shows that the labour market remains tight, in turn explaining why wage growth continues to trend up.

Japan July CPI and August flash PMI point to rising inflation and a stronger cycle; Korea July PPI inflation softened, but exports in the first 20 days of August rose; Taiwan export orders in July also increased, with incremental drivers being servers and cooling products for AI devices.

Summary of a recent outlook note on China; trade data in Japan that continues to be boosted by AI tech demand; a collapse in Korea's net foreign assets because of the rise in the Kospi that boosted the value of foreigners' domestic equity holdings; and another quarter of 20%+ CA surplus in Taiwan.

A lot is going on in markets, but for data, it has been a quieter day. Core machine orders in June in Japan were flat-ish, but overseas and tech exports remained strong. Household debt in Korea is rising in KRW terms, but is now falling sharply relative to GDP.

Relative GDP performance across the region, and a few more updates on China: detailed auto export data and fx settlement data for July, and upstream prices through the first 10 days of August.

Another round of weak domestic demand data for China. Japan Q2 GDP growth softened, but I thought the details looked ok. Taiwan's FDI into the US is once again increasing sharply.