Asian forex market wrap: wild ride for CHF and JPY crosses

• Rumours of coup in Pakistan trigger huge stops in EUR/CHF
• JPY crosses fall hard as risk aversion returns
• BoJ leave rates unchanged and easy monetary conditions remain
• Regional stockmarkets are presently around 0.75% lower
• Gold has added just $1 to $1108/oz

There has been a wild ride today for all of the major currencies with the GBP probably being the most sedate.

A good sized selling flow in AUD/JPY set the ball rolling this morning. This drove the AUD/USD below its 100-day MA at .8850, which was also the NY low, which in turn saw more stop loss selling emerge. USD/JPY then started to slide and when the Pakistan rumour hit the market, the selling of JPY crosses intensified even further. USD/JPY bottomed out at 89.00 and AUD/USD at .8812. Denials of the rumour led to some sharp short covering.

USD/CHF and EUR/CHF were also major movers in the morning. The cross fell below 1.5000 on the rumours and when the SNB didn’t emerge, EUR/CHF quickly fell 100 pips.

EUR/USD fell to its session low at the height of the cross selling but the bids at 1.4300 again proved very solid and there has been a big bounce of over 100 pips.

GBP has remained fairly quiet, obviously volatile on the crosses when the big moves were taking place.

Ranges: EUR/USD 1.4308/1.4411; EUR/CHF 1.4907/1.5026; USD/CHF 1.0389/1.0495; USD/JPY 88.96/90.04; EUR/JPY 127.35/129.37; AUD/USD .8812/.8902; Cable 1.6114/1.6218.