- USD gains in late trade on rumours of an ‘incident’ at a North Korean nuclear facility
- Regional shares also fall late on same rumours with Kospi -2% and other regional markets -1.25% on average
- Japanese FinMin Azumi: Closely watching EUR/JPY movements
- ECB Knot: EUR fall part of usual market phases; Germany biggest obstacle to raising emergency fund
- Gold $1625/oz; WTI crude oil $101.50/bbl
An extraordinarily quiet session in the main, with the majors trading in 5 pip ranges for hours on end, but rumours about an incident at a North Korean nuclear facility sent the USD higher and risk-aversion also returned late in the session.
AUD/USD has had a respectable session range of 67 pips but for the most part it didn’t move at all. Solid bids at 1.0220/30, including Sovereign interest, underpinned the pair both overnight and early in the session but those bids were filled when the USD went bid late in the session. Range: 1.0202/69
EUR/USD spent the majority of the session stuck in a 5 pip range near 1.2790 before breaking lower in late trade. Asian central banks have been reportedly buying near 1.2760, but the amounts are small. More rumours have been circulating that the French downgrade will happen tonight as well as rumours of a better-than-expected NFP. It’s been so quiet, dealers had little else to do but to spread rumours, of which we’ve had three. Ranges: 1.2760/99
USD/JPY is presently being capped by corporate sell orders at 77.25/30. The Azumi comments had no effect. Range: 77.04/25
Cable 1.5475/1.5507; USD/CHF .9515/43
