FOREX-Dollar inches lower as investors brace for Chinese trade data

* Small gains in AUD, JPY point to a market on edge
* Chinese trade data awaited as litmus test of world economy
* Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E

By Tom Westbrook
SINGAPORE, April 14 (Reuters) - The dollar inched lower on
Tuesday, but gains in riskier currencies were capped as traders
fretted about company earnings and braced for Chinese trade data
likely to show the sweeping impact of the coronavirus health
crisis on economic activity.
The Australian and New Zealand dollars held on to overnight
gains but so did the safe-haven Japanese yen, highlighting
investor uncertainty about the outlook.
The yen JPY= last sat at 107.62 per dollar, a touch above
a two-week high hit on Monday. The Aussie AUD=D3 held at
$0.6400, just below a month-high it hit overnight.
Hints that the virus may be peaking in the U.S., where
states are beginning to plan for re-opening, and in retreat
elsewhere are accompanied daily by dire economic reports.
Chinese trade data, due mid morning, and U.S. earnings,
beginning later on Tuesday with Wall Street banks, herald the
first detailed look at the crisis' darkest months.
"We're seeing hard data from March. It's the real stuff,"
said Westpac currency analyst Imre Speizer.
"February data was a bit meaningless, but March is partly
useful..anywhere you get current March data, or later, it's
going to be the thing."
Currency moves were modest ahead of the release. The New
Zealand dollar NZD=D3 steadied at $0.6094, with the pound at
$1.2510 and the euro EUR= at $1.0919 - lifting from a week-low
hit early in the session.
The Chinese yuan CNH= held at 7.0540 per dollar in
offshore trade, firmer than the three-week low of 7.0370 hit on
Good Friday.
Economists polled by Reuters are expecting a slump in
Chinese exports to have continued last month and forecast a 14%
drop compared with a year earlier, as global demand dived amid
lockdowns and business closures around the world. The grim trade report is likely to reinforce views that
China's economy sharply contracted in the first quarter for the
first time since at least 1992.
New Zealand's Treasury Department also released a suite of
five possible scenarios for the future of the national economy
on Tuesday. All of them forecast a deep contraction in the June
quarter. "What is clear is that whatever path the global and domestic
economies follow, the effects of this recession will be severe
and long lasting," the department's report said.
That is only likely to heighten investors nerves ahead of
the start, later on Tuesday, of a dour U.S. earnings season,
beginning with J.P. Morgan JPM.N and Wells Fargo WFC.N .
Though volatility-boosted trading earnings may deliver a
silver lining for the banks, earnings for S&P 500 firms are
expected to tumble 10.2% in the first quarter, compared with a
Jan. 1 forecast of a 6.3% rise.