- Japanese FinMin Noda announced that the G7 has agreed to concerted intervention to halt the JPY rise
- He further announced that the ECB might buy EUR/JPY on the European open and the Fed might buy USD/JPY on the US open
- BOJ began buying USD/JPY (estimated 35 billion so far) immediately on Tokyo open
- Nikkei +3%; other regional markets +1.2% on average
- UN announces no-fly zone over Libya; oil price rallies 1.75%
- Gold +0.6% to $1410/oz
- UK consumer confidence falls sharply
USD/JPY opened the day at 79.00 and traders were anxiously awaiting the outcome of the G7 conference call. Reuters had already reported sources as saying that the BOJ would get the greenlight for intervention but there would be no concerted action. The announcement by FinMin Noda caught the market by surprise as did the subsequent heavy buying, 25 billion USD/JPY bought before lunch. There has been heavy selling by hedge funds in particular but the BOJ looks committed. Ranges: USD/JPY 79.00/81.88, EUR/JPY 110.72/115.27
EUR/USD fell immediately after the BOJ entered the market, falling to 1.3980 from 1.4025 before recovering on EUR/JPY buying. The statement from Noda that the ECB might buy EUR/JPY sent that pair screaming higher and saw EUR/USD trigger stops above 1.4065. Ranges: 1.3979/1.4087
USD/CHF moved in line with USD/JPY, but to a lesser degree, rising to .9050 from .9000 as soon as the intervention began. Ranges: .8976/.9090
AUD/USD was particularly volatile again. It fell from .9815 to .9780 as risk aversion plays emerged after the announcement of the Libyan no-fly zone. The intervention caused some huge AUD/JPY buying which saw the AUD/USD spike almost 200 pips higher. Ranges: .9789/.9948
Cable followed the EUR/USD around and was not affected by the poor consumer confidence data. Ranges 1.6097/1.6190
