The big dog in Asia was once again USD/JPY, which continued its dramatic trip north today on its way to the 97.30 neighborhood. Getting a spark from Fed Chairman Bernanke's testimony in NY which pretty much put any fears of US bank nationalization on the back burner, US equities soared, and that momentum carried over into Asia, where the Nikkei was up close top 3% near the close.
Starting out near 96.60 the pair dipped to 96.36 but as US President Obama spoke optimistically about the recovery of the US economy, and stated that the recession has an end in sight, the US Dollar strengthened further, eventually pushing USD/JPY to just over 97.30. The past two days have witnessed quite a nice run for the USD/JPY pair, as its stop filled journey has brought it from under 93.00 to current levels near 97.00. With gloomy prospects for the Japanese economy, the government in Japan did announce a plan today to directly buy either stocks or ETFs to help boost equities. EUR/JPY ended the session higher as well, but its big figure trip to 124.99 was over a few peaks and valleys.
Over in Europe, initial gains in EUR/USD to 1.2878 were easily erased as a UK newspaper reported that German credit default swap spreads have hit record highs. The EUR/USD collapsed to just over 1.2800 on the tenuous news. Other grumblings from an ECB member stating the Euro Zone bond would be a mistake, as well as continued talk on the feebleness of Ireland and Eastern Europe's banks leave the Euro vulnerable ahead of a slew of data later including German GDP, Imports / Exports, and UK GDP as well.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | GDP s.a. (QOQ) | 4Q F | -2.10% | -2.10% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | GDP wda (YoY) | 4Q F | -1.70% | -1.70% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | GDP nsa (YoY) | 4Q F | -1.60% | -1.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Private Consumption | 4Q | 0.30% | -0.20% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Government Spending | 4Q F | 0.80% | - - |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Capital Investment | 4Q F | 0.10% | -4.50% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Construction Investment | 4Q F | 0.30% | -0.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Domestic Demand | 4Q F | 1.30% | -0.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Imports | 4Q F | 3.80% | -1.40% |
| 2/25/2009 | 7:00 | GE | Exports | 4Q F | -0.40% | -5.40% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:00 | EC | ECB's Ordonez Appears in Parliament in Madrid | 25-Feb | ||
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | GDP (QoQ) | 4Q P | -1.50% | -1.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | GDP (YoY) | 4Q P | -1.80% | -1.90% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Private Consumption | 4Q P | -0.20% | -0.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Government Spending | 4Q P | 0.60% | 0.60% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Gross Fixed Capital Formation | 4Q P | -2.80% | -4.40% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Exports | 4Q P | 0.30% | -4.90% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Imports | 4Q P | 1.00% | -3.70% |
| 2/25/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Index of Services (3mth/3mth) | DEC | -0.40% | -1.00% |
| 2/25/2009 | 10:00 | EC | ECB's Weber Speaks in Hannover, Germany | 25-Feb |
