Following speculations from investors whether the Japanese Government will intervene in Yen’s evolution, the Bank of Japan issued a statement declaring will introduce a new operation to provide funds for three months at a fixed interest rate of 0.1 percent. The plan is aimed to bring down longer term rates and enhance its monetary easing. Even so, analysts in the market opinion think of this move as a more political one, rather than a significant support to the economy.

Speculators expected some sharper measures, such as expanding its government bonds to ease the deflationary pressure.
After hitting a 14 year low of 84.82 a week ago, Dollar/yen experienced a fell to 87.00 from a level of more than 87.50 just before the announcement was made. At the moment the Dollar Yen is continuing to maintain its rate at around 87.00.

As an immediate effect to the BOJ’s emergency meeting news about the financial and economical developments the dollar has risen, the euro and the aussie got a 1 percent level higher on the day against the yen.

At present, EUR/JPY is trading at a level of 130.76 – a slight increase of 0.8 percent and the Australian Dollar is up 0.6 percent against the Japanese currency, trading at the moment around the level of 76.56.

Selling the Aussie against the US Dollar in order to book some profits emerged from the Reserve Bank of Australia which, according to expectations, has increased the rate. As a economical growth sustainability, the new interest rate adopted by the RBA is 3.75. The immediate effect that it had on the Australian currency was a slight drop of 0.2 percent to $0.9148.

Regarding EUR/USD, the pair has registered a slowly increase of 0.2 percent, trading around a level of $ 1.5060 at present.


Today's Economic Events

Time Event Currency/Country Period Previous Forecast Significance Actual
21:00ABC News Consumer Confidence IndexUnited States-474
14:00Construction Spending - ResidentialUnited States3.83
14:00Construction Spending - TotalUnited States0.82
14:00ISM Manufacturing SurveyUnited States55.72
14:00Pending Home Sales IndexUnited States6.12
10:00Unemployment RateEurozone9.89.829.8
8:55ILO Unemployment RateGermany-262
8:55Unemployment ChangeGermany-263
8:30PMI ManufacturingUK53.454251.8
8:00PMI ManufacturingEurozone50.751251.2
7:55PMI ManufacturingGermany512
7:30SVME - Purchasing Manager IndexSwitzerland 5454.7256.9
6:00Nationwide House Prices (M-o-M)UKMonthly0.40.43
6:00Retail Sales (M-o-M)GermanyMonthly-0.20.52
6:00Retail Sales (Y-o-Y)GermanyYearly-3.9-1.73
5:45GDP (Q-o-Q)Switzerland Quarterly-0.32
5:45GDP (Y-o-Y)Switzerland Yearly-1.53
2:30Interest Rate DecisionAustralia3.53.7523.75