In less than an hour, Friday trading kicks off in New Zealand. Watch out for month-end skews in the day ahead, especially since it coincides with the final day of the week. The last time the week and monthly trading ended on a Friday was May 31. Stocks fell sharply in the last hour or so of trading and USD/JPY followed it lower. Commodity currencies struggled at the end of the day.
The rule of thumb at month/quarter end is that losing trades are dumped so hedge funds don’t have to show them on client reports. The Australian dollar fell nearly 11% in the quarter with NZD and JPY as the next worst performers. The euro was quarterly winner. Another big loser in the quarter was gold so beware mass liquidation of gold and gold stocks on Friday.
Overall, don’t look for explanations of every move. The US dollar was strangely bid in European trading today and quarter-end may have been the reason.
