The forex trading headlines for Asia Monday 4 November 2013

Weekend items:

Monday:

A quiet opening for the week on Monday morning in Asia.

the AUD/USD was a mover early, though, ticking higher after the open with better China services PMI cited, and then up to just under 0.9500 on the back of strong local data (see bullets, above). Much talk in the market now about a likely end of the RBA easing cycle was prompted by today’s strong retail sales and house price rises data. AUD saw a brief drop back to 0.9470 as the EUR/USD got hit lower.

EUR/USD had a very quiet opening, drifting ever so slightly higher into 1.3500 offers. Around midday Tokyo time, though, it got hit quite hard, with a sharp drop to just under 1.3460; there was no apparent news about (comments from the Federal Reserve’s Fisher … (see bullets, above) … had been in the market for 30 minutes or more), the drop being attributed to a stop loss hunt. EUR/USD bottomed out below 1.3450 as of writing.

GBP, CHF NZD and AUD all weakened with the euro, but the euro was the biggest loser.

USD/JPY had a very quiet session, in a very tight range.