PBoC conducts CNY 0bln open market operations for the second consecutive day

A zero OMO print is not inaction, it is passive draining: with maturing operations rolling off and nothing injected to offset, the PBoC is withdrawing liquidity from the interbank system by default. Episodes of this kind have historically signalled one of two things, either that the bank judges system liquidity already ample and is content to let excess cash come off, or that it is deliberately nudging money market rates up toward its preferred corridor, often around periods of currency pressure when tighter onshore liquidity raises the cost of shorting the yuan. The tell that separates the two is the behaviour of short-dated repo and 7-day fixing rates over subsequent sessions, and whether the omission persists into larger maturity days. Two consecutive days is a short run by past standards; the PBoC has previously strung together longer zero-injection sequences before resuming, and the pattern has usually broken around quarter-end, tax payment dates, or government bond issuance ramps that drain reserves. Worth noting is the calendar position: banks' reserve needs are lumpy, and whether the stance extends into those windows is the operative signal for the front of the CNY curve and for CNH-CNY spreads.