- NATO reportedly bomb Gaddafi compound in Tripoli; state TV stations go off-air
- More deaths reported in Syria and unrest persists in Yemen
- Threat of trucker and taxi strikes in China as fuel and food costs rise
- Japan’s big public pension fund to dip into assets to cover shortfall
- Silver again leads way with big gains, Gold posts new record high
- Oil +0.4% to $112.75/bbl
- Nikkei flat, HK +1%, Singapore +0.2%
The FX market has been generally quiet with many participants enjoying a long weekend. Silver has again been a big mover and oil has also moved higher on the continuing unrest in the Middle East.
The first move came out of the emerging markets when USD/MYR broke a big psychological level at 3.0000. This caused a sell-off in the USD across the board around the same time that Silver was galloping higher. It had closed in NY at $46.30/oz but traded to new highs at $47.75/oz very quickly.
EUR/USD moved swiftly higher during this phase and traded above 1.4600 from an opening level near 1.4550, before momentum ran out. Recent support levels at 1.4520 were tested and confirmed. It’s safe to expect some trailing stops below there now. At times heavy EUR/JPY buying has also supported. Ranges: EUR/USD 1.4522/1.4605, EUR/CHF 1.2879/1.2913
USD/JPY bucked the trend in early trade as it was the only USD pair which showed no inclination to fall. The JPY crosses moved swiftly higher in early trade and have maintained most of these gains. USD/JPY dealers were targetting stops above 82.35 and once these were done the market lost momentum. Ranges: USD/JPY 81.79/82.42, EUR/JPY 119.11/120.01
AUD/USD managed to make a fresh new multi-decade high, but only by one pip and it again pulled up shy of reported heavy sell orders between 1.0780 and 1.0800. Light trailing stops have since been triggered below 1.0720. Ranges: 1.0707/74
Cable has more or less followed the lead of the EUR/USD only to a slightly lesser extent. Ranges: 1.6489/1.6551, EUR/GBP .8804/34
