- Australian unemployment rate falls to 5.1% as 46,000 new jobs are added
- Japan May machinery orders -9.1% MoM
- Japan May current account surplus shrinks
- BoJ to maintain very easy monetary policy
- Geithner says US economy recovering at moderate pace
- Regional stock markets +2% on average
USD/JPY made some decent gains today fuelled by JPY-cross buying and the overnight failure to break below 87.00. Dealers had expected some large corporate sell orders at 88.00 but when they failed to materialise the rally continued. Ranges: USD/JPY 87.68/88.46, EUR/JPY 110.76/112.01.
AUD/USD had already made some big gains overnight as shorts were forced to cover with risk returning to the market. The strong employment data led to an immediate rally in the AUD with AUD/JPY jumping 2% in a short period of time. Ranges: AUD/USD .8623/.8747, AUD/JPY 75.60/77.20.
EUR/USD also managed to break above its previous highs at 1.2665 and work through some heavy selling on its way to a high of 1.2687. The pair has since returned to its opening level which is slightly disappointing for the bulls given the strong move higher in EUR/JPY. Ranges: EUR/USD 1.2622/87, EUR/CHF 1.3257/1.3322, USD/CHF 1.0483/1.0526.
Cable once again stalledclose to the 1.5220 level, for what is now the fourth time. There were no major GBP-related news developments. Ranges: Cable 1.5175/1.5228, EUR/GBP .8315/36.
Markets: Nikkei +2.5%, HK +1.5%, All Ords +2%, Kospi +1.3%. Gold +$6 $1206/oz. Oil $74/bbl.