The Japanese Yen ended the week as the king of the hill, as traders continue to bail out of short Yen positions, thus pushing the Japanese currency to a four week high against the US Dollar in a stop dominated move. USD/JPY opened in Asia at its highs of 98.14, and never looked back as it collapsed to just under 97.00 for the session. The move represented a low for the USD/JPY pair for the month of April.
The Yen crosses followed the strengthening Yen as talk of a possible ratings downgrade on the UK pushed traders to risk aversion. EUR/JPY left its session highs of 128.99 early on, and finally hit bottom at 127.48, GBP/JPY followed as well, falling from 144.50 to land at 142.00. A report out of the Nikkei news stating that the Japanese government may limit leverage in currency trading helped to grease the wheels of the slide of the crosses. Adding to the mix is the upcoming Golden Week holiday in Asia which begins next week and can last up to two weeks and usually sees many in the financial industry take vacation time off. Spot Gold shot to over $912.00 per ounce today on news that China was adding to its gold positions.
EUR/USD pushed higher to over 1.3170 on thoughts that the currency is oversold. Fears that ''stress test'' data could soon be leaked also helped the Euro as traders sold Dollars ahead of what looks like a no win situation when the ''stress'' data is finally unveiled. There is a good amout of data later in London.....Have a nice weekend.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 4/24 | 6:45 | FR | Consumer Spending (MoM) | MAR | 0.20% | -2.00% |
| 4/24 | 6:45 | FR | Consumer Spending (YoY) | MAR | -0.50% | -2.00% |
| 4/24 | 8:00 | GE | IFO - Business Climate | APR | 82.3 | 82.1 |
| 4/24 | 8:00 | GE | IFO - Current Assessment | APR | 82.1 | 82.7 |
| 4/24 | 8:00 | GE | IFO - Expectations | APR | 82.6 | 81.6 |
| 4/24 | 8:30 | UK | GDP (QoQ) | 1Q A | -1.50% | -1.60% |
| 4/24 | 8:30 | UK | GDP (YoY) | 1Q A | -3.80% | -2.00% |
| 4/24 | 8:30 | UK | Retail Sales (MoM) | MAR | -0.30% | -1.90% |
| 4/24 | 8:30 | UK | Retail Sales (YoY) | MAR | 1.10% | 0.40% |
| 4/24 | 8:30 | UK | Index of Services (3mth/3mth) | FEB | - - | -1.30% |
