The US Dollar was mixed in Asian trading as it was up against the Euro and down against the Yen...EUR/USD drifted lower after an open near 1.2645 as confidence in the Euro Zone economy hit a 15 year low, dragging the pair to 1.2525 before rebounding late towards 1.2620. 

The markets seemed cautious ahead of the US Presidential election although many traders felt that a new leader in the US would help to stabilize the economy and possibly aggressively invoke new plans to combat the ongoing credit crisis. With Japan returning from holiday, we saw Asian stocks higher across the board and USD/JPY dropping from highs of 99.35 to       
98.38 lows early in the trade day with order books looking light ahead of the election. EUR/JPY and the other Yen crosses were also weaker as equities soared. The Euro versus the Yen dropped from 125.47 to 123.37 in choppy trading, but was edging closer to 124.90 by daybreak in London.       
      
The market had priced in a 50 basis point cut by the RBA today, but the Central Bank surprised and cut rates 75 basis points to 5.25% amid concerns of the economy slowing. The AUD/USD dropped almost 2.5% this session from 0.6802 to lows near 0.6602 before stabilizing closer to 0.6670. The growing consensus is that the ECB and the BoE will follow later in the week with aggressive cuts as well.      
      
Obviously all eyes will be on the US election where the race has become tighter than the US media might portray. Results might not be clear until mid session in Asia, and that does not rule out the possibility of any post election voting issues, which one can only hope will not materialize. Either way we can be hopeful that a new leader will help boost confidence in the marketplace.       
      

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):      

  • 11/4/2008 8:00 EC  Luxembourg's Juncker, EBRD's Mirow Speaks at EU Parliament 4-Nov  
  • 11/4/2008 8:30 EC  EU Finance Ministers Hold Meeting  4-Nov  
  • 11/4/2008 9:30 UK  PMI Construction  OCT  38.8 37.8
  • 11/4/2008 10:00 EC  Euro-Zone PPI (MoM)  SEP  -0.50% -0.10%
  • 11/4/2008 10:00 EC  Euro-Zone PPI (YoY)  SEP  8.50% 8.00%