Asia Session

With poor housing data as well as a lackluster day on Wall Street putting a hiatus in the optimistic talk of the global economic recovery, the Yen made nice gains across the currency spectrum, especially versus the Euro. Although the Nikkei kept its head above water for the session, the risk trades were exited as witnessed by the EUR/JPY collapse from early highs of 131.30 down to 129.71. In GBP/JPY we saw the same thing, an early high over 149.10 and a low just above 147.60. Japanese Q1 GDP came in at a record low with a contraction of -15.2% YoY, but although this number was awful, it was right in line with the markets expectations, thus mollifying any drastic moves in the Yen. That being said, their were sweeping moves in the AUD/JPY as well as the NZD/JPY as those recently buoyant currencies down under feel victim to the above stated fizzle of risk, as well as traders taking profit in an undecided market. AUD/JPY dropped a solid 120 pips from the session's 74.62 apex and the NZD/JPY skid 84 pips from its session top to session low of 57.22. Both the Aussie and Kiwi dollars were also beaten up by the dollar, with the Aussie looking soft through the 0.7700 figure as London got revved up for the trade day. Although both the Dollar and the Yen did well against the Euro and Aussie, pitted against each other, the Yen had gained ''hand'' as was so eloquently spoken by George Costanza in a Seinfeld episode of years ago. USD/JPY slid from the 96.20's to the 95.40's in a stop driven move lower, but the pair equalized prior to London near the 95.70 region. It seems that the continued see-saw moves in this pair will continue as most trades seem short sighted in these current market conditions. As we head into the London session, a look at EUR/USD sees a big drop in Asia from right near 1.3650 to just around current levels of 1.3600, about 15 pips off the low but looking to revisit soon.

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected