The Asian forex market followed the NY lead for a change and sold the USD aggressively on the back of more talk of bank nationalisation in the US.
- The Wall Street Journal reported that the US Government may take up to a 40% stake in Citigroup.
- Continued talk that a large Asian central bank is selling USD in large amounts against the EUR and the CHF in particular.
EUR/USD opened the day around 1.2830, fell to an early low at 1.2762 but rallied hard on the Citigroup news and is closing close to its’ 1.2940 highs. The other USD pairings followed a similar theme; USD/JPY traded between 92.77 and 93.55, USD/CHF 1.1481-1.1590, Cable 1.4367-1.4552 and AUD/USD .6417-.6511.
Gold failed to hold on to gains above $1000/oz but a test of $1035 seems but a matter of time. Equity markets around the region lost on average 1.5%. Commodity prices continue to tumble with the CRB index at multi-year lows.
