Asia Session Recap

Daily Forex Fundamentals | Written by Forex.com | Apr 30 09 05:36 GMT |

With the surge in US equities carrying over into Asian trading and a sudden burst of optimism over the US economic outlook, the yen crosses came roaring back as risk was back in the marketplace despite the looming specter of the flu pandemic. However, late in Asia, the news leaked that American automaker Chrysler’s talks with the Treasury Department in order to avoid bankruptcy had broken down, thus sending traders scampering to buy Dollars and Yen. USD/JPY opened near the 97.60 area and climbed to 97.85 highs on the weaker Yen, however, as the Chrysler story was leaked, the Yen strengthened, dropping USD/JPY to lows in the 97.15 ballpark before leveling out near 97.30. Using the EUR/JPY pair as an example of the crosses, it had similar moves, hitting early session highs of 130.27 early, and then collapsing to 128.93 lows on the back of the news. All yen crosses followed the same pattern today. Of note is that the Bank of Japan kept its key interest rate unchanged as expected at 0.10% with little to no market reaction. Going forward, the action in Asia will be subdued as many traders in Japan go on holiday for Golden Week. Japanese markets will be closed from Monday to Wednesday next week. In Europe, the single currency gained some early real estate on Dollar weakness, climbing from early lows of 1.2350ish to just under 1.3340 highs before the subsequent drop to the 1.3270 arena. Down under, in New Zealand, the NZD/USD fell a big figure from near .5734 to 0.5634 as the RBNZ cut its interest rate by 50 basis points as expected, to a record low of 2.50% and commented that rates will remain low until 2010 to fight off recession Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session): 4/30/2009 6:45 FR Producer Prices (MoM) MAR -0.60% -0.40% 4/30/2009 6:45 FR Producer Prices (YoY) MAR -4.50% -5.30% 4/30/2009 7:30 EC ECB's Nowotny Speaks at Briefing in Vienna 30-Apr 4/30/2009 7:55 GE Unemployment Change (000's) APR 69K 65K 4/30/2009 7:55 GE Unemployment Rate (s.a) APR 8.10% 8.20% 4/30/2009 9:00 EC Euro-Zone CPI Estimate (YoY) APR 0.60% 0.70% 4/30/2009 9:00 EC Euro-Zone Unemployment Rate MAR 8.50% 8.70% Forex.com http://www.forex.com DISCLAIMER: The information and opinions in this report are for general information use only and are not intended as an offer or solicitation with respect to the purchase of sale of any currency. All opinions and information contained in this report are subject to change without notice. This report has been prepared without regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any particular recipient. While the information contained herein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, author does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness, nor does author assume any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss that may result from the reliance by any person upon any such information or opinions.