The New York session saw the dollar consolidate its overnight gains against most major currencies with the exception of USDCAD. We saw USDCAD manage to retain all its overnight gains and then add onto them. The pair opened the NY session trading near the .9690/.9700 area. Its initial NY advance was slow but steady. Once the .9730/.9740 area cracked, the skies cleared and this pair took off. The pair was not fooling around on its run up. It made quick work of any resistance that stood in its way as it powered up to test near the .9860/70 area. A number of factors can be attributed to this move. Stocks sold off again and carry trades we trading heavy all session. The big contributor to the USDCAD rise was gold selling off hard. The yellow metal plunged lower on the day. It lost nearly 3.5% on the day. Oil also traded heavy to add to the CAD's worries. AUD and NZD remained surprisingly resilient through the NY session until later in the day when stocks got hit hard. AUDUSD and NZDUSD finally succumbed to the pressure and sold off. However, the sell off was not as severe as one might expect with commodities trading so heavy. Perhaps those pairs will catch up once Asia gets going later.
We are light on the data front for the upcoming Asian session so Asian markets will most likely be focusing in on the commodity picture again. Should we see commodities trade like they did in New York we should see the CAD, AUD and NZD continue their slide. Also keep an eye out for China comments regarding diversification of currency reserves and also look out for further credit crisis headlines. Those two issues are always good for a bout of volatility in the currency markets. Good luck!
Upcoming Economic Data Releases
- 23:50 GMT Bank of Japan's Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes for October ;( relevance: high)
