Currency For Carry Trades

(Reuters) - The euro retreated from a three-week high against the dollar on Thursday as weak sentiment data increased concerns about the economic outlook for the euro zone, though losses were limited by the Federal Reserve pledging to be open on more stimulus. Following a two-day policy meeting that finished on Wednesday Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said policymakers were ready to launch another round of bond buying if the U.S. economy weakened. The statement weighed broadly on the dollar, pushing it to a three-week low against the euro of $1.3263, before the common currency slipped on data showing euro zone economic sentiment fell more than expected in April. U.S. initial weekly jobless claims showing a weaker pace of healing in the labor market sent the dollar to a one-week ...

One day after the Federal Reserve published a quite encouraging Beige book, the dollar backtracks to levels of a week ago, with no solid proof the Fed will reload its debt-purchasing gun after March's Jobs disappointment, and worse, the world's leading economy is still not out of the woods yet! The greenback fell against most of its traded peers on Thursday, as government data showed the most Americans since January sought unemployment benefits last week, backing bets the Federal Reserve should carry on further monetary easing to make sure the economy is fully recovering. Initial filing for employment insurances in the U.S. rose to 380 thousand from 357 thousand that was upwardly revised to 367 thousand in the prior week, missing analysts' median estimates of 355 thousand. U.S. jobless ...

(Reuters) - The safe-haven yen held on to overnight gains in Asia on Friday, having risen across the board as investors gave risk currencies like the Australian dollar a wide berth on worries about the health of the global economy. Surveys on Thursday showed manufacturing shrank for a fifth month in China, while factory activity in Germany and France -- Europe's two biggest economies -- suffered big falls. This prompted investors to dump growth-linked currencies and take shelter in the yen, which rose against the dollar, euro, Aussie and kiwi. The dollar fell more than 1 percent on Thursday to a 1-1/2 week low of 82.31 yen, before recovering a bit of ground to last stand at 82.60. "Fears of a Chinese hard landing are on the rise; overdone we think," said Vincent Chaigneau, strategist at ...

(Reuters) - The U.S. dollar started with a spring in its step on Wednesday as renewed worries about Chinese growth saw investors dump commodity currencies including the Australian dollar. The dollar index .DXY bounced off a 1-1/2 week trough of 79.354 to last trade at 79.610. Against the yen, the greenback climbed to 83.68, nearing an 11-month high of 84.17 seen just a few days ago. "We maintain a view of being long USD/JPY on dips as well as CAD/JPY and MXN/JPY. The market continues to want to sell JPY, keeping USD/JPY well bid. Some of it has to do with rising yields in the US," said Sebastien Galy, strategist at Societe Generale. U.S. Treasury yields have risen on the back of growing optimism about the U.S. economic recovery, making the dollar less attractive as a funding currency ...

Forex News and Events: The noticeable lack of new headlines kept FX markets subdued. The lone highlight of the Asian session was the RBA meeting minutes which came in relatively balanced. RBA sustain their easing bias by commenting that “so long as inflation remained well contained, there would be ample scope for the Bank to ease policy in such a scenario”. In addition, the RBA did mentioned that while downside risk could materialized the likelihood had lessen since a few months ago. The minutes stated that "members noted that the past month had seen an improvement in the prospects for the global economy, with European policymakers making progress in addressing the region's debt and financial problems. Major downside risks were seen to remain, but the probability of a very bad outcome ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "The improvement is largely due to ongoing exports gain" - Dominique Barbet, an economist at BNP Paribas The euro zone's current account surplus rose to 4.5 billion euros in January, the highest level in almost five years, from 3.4 billion euros in December, said the European Central Bank on Monday. USD "While builders are still very cautious at this time, there is a sense that many local housing markets have started to move in the right direction" - Barry Rutenberg, chairman of the NAHB Homebuilder sentiment remained unchanged in March from February, said the National Association of Home Builders on Monday. The NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market index stayed at 28, the highest level since June 2007. GBP "Early indicators suggest that property market activity in ...

(Reuters) - The euro climbed to a more than one-week high against the dollar on Monday after an orderly auction of Greek default insurance supported views that Greece's threat to the euro zone has diminished. The euro also gained against the yen, hitting its strongest level in the almost five months since the Bank of Japan intervened to stem the currency's advance. Investors unwound bearish bets on the euro and focused on a Greek credit default swap auction that set the payout for holders of CDS totaling about 3.2 billion euros. The auction fixed a fair value price of 21.5 cents on the euro for Greek bonds, within expectations. That means an owner of Greek CDS would be paid 78.5 cents on the euro, which analysts said was enough to compensate for the roughly 75 percent loss investors ...

(Reuters) - The euro climbed to its highest in more than a week against the dollar on Monday after an orderly auction of Greek default insurance lent support to views that Greece presents less of a threat to the euro zone. The euro also gained against the yen, hitting its strongest level in the almost five months since the Bank of Japan intervened to stem its currency's advance. Investors unwound bearish bets on the euro and were focused on a Greek credit default swap auction to set the payout for holders of CDS totaling about 3.2 billion euros. The auction fixed a fair value price of 21.5 cents on the euro for Greek bonds, within expectations. That means an owner of Greek CDS would be paid 78.5 cents on the euro, which analysts said was enough to compensate for the roughly 75 percent ...

(Reuters) - The dollar slipped against the euro for a third straight day on Monday, receding from last week's one-month high, with the breaching of technical levels fuelling the single currency's strength. The euro also gained against the yen, hitting its highest level in almost five months when the Bank of Japan intervened to stem its currency's climb. "No bad news is arguably good news for the euro," said Nick Bennenbroek, head of currency strategy at Wells Fargo in New York. "This is not headline driven, but rather technical factors causing some short covering." The euro gained against the dollar after clearing recent daily highs of $1.3188 and $1.3192, with stops triggered around the $1.32 level, he said. The euro hit a session high of $1.3264 and last traded at $1.3238, up 0.5 ...