Boj Intervention And The Parity

Yen gains after BOJ stands pat; World Bank cuts China outlook, April lending looks weak; EUR falls on Papademos "grexit" mention Economic Data (JP) BANK OF JAPAN (BOJ) LEAVES TARGET RATE RANGE UNCHANGED BETWEEN 0.0% TO 0.10% (AS EXPECTED); Keeps economic assessment unchanged; Maintains asset purchase fund at ¥70T (JP) JAPAN APR MERCHANDISE TRADE BALANCE TOTAL: -¥520B V -¥471BE; ADJUSTED: -¥480B V -¥617BE (US) NORTH AMERICA SEMI EQUIPMENT INDUSTRY APR SALES BOOK TO BILL RATIO: 1.10 V 1.13 PRIOR (3RD CONSECUTIVE MONTH ABOVE PARITY, 1st decline in 7 months) (AU) AUSTRALIA APR DEWR INTERNET SKILLED VACANCIES M/M: -0.8% V -0.5% PRIOR (4-month low) (AU) AUSTRALIA MAR WESTPAC LEADING INDEX M/M: 0.4% V 0.0% PRIOR (AU) AUSTRALIA MAR CONFERENCE BOARD LEADING INDEX M/M: +0.2% V 0.0% PRIOR (SG) ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR Spain's credit rating was lowered by Standard & Poor's for a second time in 2012 on enduring worries the nation will have to apply additional fiscal backing to lenders as the economy shrinks. S&P cut its long term grade for Spain from A to BBB+ adding a negative outlook. Country's short term rating was lowered from A-1 to A-2, S&P agency reported on Thursday. USD Crude oil price declined from almost 4-week high in New York trade after S&P ratings agency cut Spain's sovereign credit rating, boosting concerns that further recession in Europe may halt demand for crude. Oil to be delivered in June lost USD 0.61, reaching USD 103.94 a barrel. June Brent oil gave up USD 0.49 and traded at USD 119.43 a barrel. GBP Today the Great Britain Pound extended its gains ...

Morning Briefing : Risk aversion finds no reprieve What's new: Asia: Asian indices follow US counterparts into negative territory FOREX: Riskier bets sold off; AUD/USD down to 6 week lows FOREX: USD/JPY spikes briefly on Finance minister’s comments US: Super committee confirms unable to reach agreement France: Moody’s warns France Forex rates in Asia and Indices: EURUSD: 1.3523- 1.3469. USDCHF: 0.9186 – 0.9151. GBPUSD: 1.5668- 1.5620. EURJPY: 104.32 – 103.68. USDJPY: 77.33 – 76.87 DowJones: 11’547.31 -2.11% NASDAQ: 2’523.14 -1.92% S & P 500: 1’192.98 -1.86% Nikkei: 8’314.74 -0.4% Shanghai: 2’412.63 -0.1% Gold: $ 1'686.70 Crude Oil: $ 97.21 Comments: Asian equity indices followed their US counterparts into negative territory as risk sentiment continued to subside as the prospect of ...

Forex News and Events: Forex markets are broadly moving in a risk on pattern aided by the decent rally in regional Asian indices despite massive event risk looming in the not distant future. USD has come under selling pressure while Gold continues to see exodus from longs dropping the precious metal sharply from $1921 to $1827.57. We wouldn’t put to much value in the recent price action as nothing has changed in the macro environment and more likely seeing a short term correction after a few days of severe risk aversion. The news flow today has been on the light side considering what we have been managing the last few days. News wires are buzzing about a possible $300bn jobs package to be unveiled by US President Obama in his Congressional address tomorrow. The primary means of funding ...

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK at 0800 GMT (EDT +0400) USD Risk sentiment was muted in Asia, mainly on the back of intact worries about global growth prospects and the Eurozone debt crisis. Several officials stressed the fragile situation in France and Italy. According to German Chancellor Merkel Greece will not receive aid payments this month if conditions of the rescue package are not met. Italy‘s President Napolitano said that the alarming widening of Italian sovereign spreads over bunds cannot be ignored, and said it shows the urgent need to regain market confidence. Elsewhere, the RBA kept a neutral monetary policy stance. In terms of data, Australian export growth slowed more than expected. As a result to above outlined conditions and European markets’ weak closing yesterday most Asian stock ...

The Week Ahead Highlights Risk sentiment stumbles again Waiting for Jackson Hole Are 'safe-havens' due for a short-term pullback? SNB intervention risk is here to stay The ECB calms sovereign debt markets Key data and events to watch next week Risk sentiment stumbles again Risk assets (stocks, commodities, JPY- and CHF-crosses, and commodity currencies) stabilized further to start this past week, but suffered what seems likely to be the first in a series of periodic relapses, as market conviction remains extremely low. We remain cautiously optimistic that the sell-off in the first half of August marked the low point in the current risk retrenchment, but we are keenly aware that risks remain skewed to the downside. In support of the view that a medium-term bottom ...

The Asian Pacific awaits a week full of events and economic data from various Asian countries, increasing the data stream from the fourth quarter before the end of the year. Asian financial markets are still experiencing heavy fluctuations due to the economic and political developments in the region wrapped in heightened jitters and uncertainty. One of the most important data that will be released this week is the October Japanese Unemployment rate which is expected steady at 5.0%. Unemployment rates fell from 5.1% during the month of August with the rising number of job opportunities added to the Japanese economy despite the yen's appreciation. Unemployment data counts as the only glimmer of hope from the Japanese economy, especially after recent exports and domestic demand figures ...

Chuck is getting on a plane bound for Mexico this morning, so I will be bringing you the Pfennig this week. As usual, Chuck left me a note to share with all the readers last night, so heeerrreee’s Chuck: On Friday, we saw more healing in the currencies and metals, from the price action earlier in the week. Gold jumped up $15, and I have to think that some of that gain came from the heightened risk from the packages from Yemen. I tell you all the time that we have a ton of nut-jobs running around the world, wanting to blow this up, or wipe this country off the map… But gold – with silver tagging along – will always be sought when geopolitical risks elevate. So… Welcome to November. I used to complain about November a lot, but the past couple of Novembers haven’t been that bad, so I’ll ...

Huge week for financial markets as several Central Banks will be having their meetings along with elections in the US – some leading economic data is also due out this week (just in case you have not heard). All together, the week should make for some directionless volatility. We suspect that the highlight of the week, the FOMC meeting, will underwhelm the market regarding the size and scope of QE2. While the initial injection will likely fall short of expectations, incremental future asset purchases are going to remain data dependent and thus further easing will be even more conditional. Given this base scenario we expect a slight rally in USD following the FOMC meeting, however we doubt any strong directional move. FX markets are seeing a slow erosion of USD positioning this morning ...