- Australian consumer confidence falls 5%
- Australian Q4 dwelling starts -6.9% Vs -3% expected
- South Korean unemployment jumps sharply to 3.7% from 3.2%
- Press: Greece to badly miss deficit targets
- Japanese business sentiment dropped sharply in Q1
- Chinese Premier says Yuan approaching balanced level
- PBOC continues with recent trend of setting higher USD/CNY mid-point, today at 6.3328
- Nikkei +1.7%, Kospi and Hang Seng +1.2%.
- Gold $1677/oz; Oil $106.50/bbl
Another quiet session only notable for another interim high in the USD/JPY. Regional stocks made strong gains again and the Chinese continue to hint that a widened USD/CNY trading band will happen sooner rather than later.
USD/JPY opened just below 83.00 but the barrier had already been breached during NY trade. The rising Nikkei helped bullish momentum in the Yen crosses and USD/JPY traded to 83.20 where turnover became very heavy and we’ve had quiet consolidation since then. Ranges: 82.84/83.21
AUD/USD fell after the poor consumer confidence data but demand for AUD/JPY in particular has helped outweigh the selling. Up and down but ultimately no change on the session, range 1.0507/55
EUR/USD has had a quiet 35 pip range with very little interest being shown in the interbank market. The generally stronger USD weighed somewhat on EUR/USD but EUR/JPY and EUR/CHF buying helped outweigh this. Range: 1.3055/90
Cable 1.5675/1.5713; EUR/CHF 1.2070/85
