- Risk sentiment was very sour early in the session but has recovered strongly
- BRC: UK retail sales rebound in March
- KPMG-REC: UK jobs report shows modest growth
- Japan core machine orders +4.8% MoM
- BOJ may expand asset buying proigram by up to Yen10 trillion on April 27th: Press reports
- Australian owner-occupied housing finance -2.5% MoM
- Australian consumer confidence index -1.6% to 94.5
- New Zealand business confidence rises by 13% compared with 0% last month
- Nikkei -1% after opening over 1.5% lower; HK -1.3%, Shanghai -0.2%
- Gold $1656/oz; Oil $101.20/bbl
Once again the AUD was the main instigator as big funds got involved early and tried to drive it lower. Risk sentiment was sour in the early part of the session and when equity markets opened lower, macro funds and hedge funds sold the AUD across the board. Previous lows in the AUD/USD near 1.0230 were breached but the buying was also very substantial and the bulls eventually won the day, forcing intraday bears to cover later in the session. Ranges: AUD/USD 1.0221/88
USD/JPY has had a very tight range despite plentiful flows in AUD/JPY and EUR/JPY and of course the Asahi comments re further asset purchases. The market is expecting further BOJ action in 2 weeks but the amounts are still unknown. There is also an expectation that the BOJ will buy USD/JPY, possibly near 80.50 but at the latest neat 80.00. Today’s range 80.64/82
EUR/USD was mainly influenced by movements in AUD/USD and EUR/JPY. Talk of Sovereign buyers at 1.3050 and sellers above 1.3125 is keeping the range trading mode intact. Range: 1.3064/96
Cable 1.5850/80; EUR/CHF 1.2010/17
USD/KRW managed to break above its recent range highs as tensions with North Korea and it’s upcoming rocket launch weigh on the KRW.
