China's Trade Surplus Climbs to Second-Highest Ever, Softer PBoC Fix

China recorded a trade surplus of $125.62 billion in June, compared with $113.89 billion a year earlier, and it marked the second-largest monthly trade surplus ever reported by the country. The markets predicted a surplus of $121 billion. Prior to the market opening, the People's Bank of China set the yuan's central parity rate at 6.7990 per US dollar on Tuesday. Comparatively, today's fixing came 18 pips softer than Monday's fixing of 6.7972 and 63 pips weaker than the Reuters estimate of 6.7927. At the time of writing, onshore yuan held higher by 0.05% to 6.7768 against the dollar, and its offshore counterpart rose 0.08% to 6.77923 in the late Asian session. The spot yuan is allowed to trade at a maximum of 2% on either side of the fixed midpoint each day. The PBoC fixes matters for the US dollar because China manages the yuan against many currencies, but the dollar sits in the middle of most currency pricing. So any change in yuan management can also affect G20/USD pairs globally. The China Foreign Exchange Trade System RMB Index, which measures the yuan against major currencies, slips 0.30 points to 102.35, as per the latest reading on July 10. Twelve currencies,.