- BOJ keeps interest rates unchanged and makes no change to its monetary policy
- FinMin Azumi announced that Japan would buy Yuan65 billion in Chinese debt
- EU endorses new bailout plan for Greece
- Australian business confidence fell in February, owner-occupied housing finance was also down but business conditions improved
- UK RICS house price balance improved from -16 in January to -13 in February
- Regional stockmarkets rallied by over 1% on average, with some talk of large calls being bought on S&P ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting
- Gold $1705/oz; Oil $106.70/bbl
It was a fairly quiet session again in Asia, with the market waiting for the BOJ meeting to end and also the federal Reserve meeting later today. Rumours drove the market with talk of large plays in S&P futures as well as talk of Sovereign interest in the EUR.
AUD/USD was again the main mover, opening near session lows at 1.0510 but moving gradually higher as stockmarkets caught a bid tone. The rather subdued business confidence index did send the Aussie briefly lower but as the Australian stockmarket continued to ignore the MacQuarie Bank downgrade, so too did the AUD continue to recover. Range: 1.0505/61
EUR/USD has edged higher through the session on the back of rumours that Sovereign need to buy significant amounts in the coming days and also benefitting from EUR/JPY buying as risk sentiment improved. Ranges: 1.3143/91
USD/JPY was stagnated ahead of the BOJ in a 30 pip range, 82.14/41 but fell back towards 82.00 after the no-change disappointed short-term Yen bears.
Cable 1.5629/61; EUR/CHF 1.2055 choice
