A rather quiet day in Asia that saw a boost in both both the Dollar and Yen and conversely, saw the Euro and Pound looking like they were heading back in the direction of yesterday's levels. With no real data or market news, the moves were orderly, with EUR/USD hitting its peak of 1.3938 early, but from there it was all downhill, as the pair drifted close to the 1.3850 level as of this writing. The S&P downgrade of Ireland for the second time in almost three months yesterday helped to initially undermine the single European currency. The GBP/USD followed a similar track, hitting its 1.60920 high level early on before later dropping through the 1.6000 mark as things in the UK government seemed to stabilize a bit after yesterday's chaos surrounding the Labour Party and its dwindling support brought the Pound to 1.5803.
With US stocks mixed and Asian stocks lower, the risk trade lost its grip in Asia, and the Yen was pelted with bids. USD/JPY started out near 98.50 and as the session progressed, the Yen strengthened to a 97.90 level as of this writing. EUR/JPY got as high as 137.32 early on, but slid to the 135.70's as the day wound down. The AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY both dropped about 100 pips and 80 pips respectively as traders looked for perceived safety in the Yen. The Aussie and Kiwi Dollars were aggressively sold against the Greenback as well.
Currently many are looking to see if the US has recovered from the economic morass enough to possibly warrant a Fed rate hike by as early as late 2009. Upcoming US data this week should help to enforce or negate this idea and tilt the scale to either risk aversion, or risk appetite.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected
| 6/9/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Trade Balance | APR | 11.3B | 9.3B |
| 6/9/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Current Account (EURO) | APR | 10.2B | 10.0B |
| 6/9/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Imports SA (MoM) | APR | 0.80% | 0.50% |
| 6/9/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Exports SA (MoM) | APR | 0.70% | -0.10% |
| 6/9/2009 | 6:30 | FR | Bank of France Bus. Sentiment | MAY | 75 | 77 |
| 6/9/2009 | 6:45 | FR | Trade Balance (Euros) | APR | -4.9B | -4.5B |
| 6/9/2009 | 7:30 | EC | EU Finance Ministers Hold Meeting | 9-Jun | ||
| 6/9/2009 | 8:30 | UK | DCLG UK House Prices (YoY) | APR | -13.60% | -13.30% |
| 6/9/2009 | 9:30 | SZ | KOF Institute June Economic Forecst | 9-Jun | ||
| 6/9/2009 | 10:00 | GE | Industrial Prod. YoY (nsa wda) | APR | -20.40% | -20.50% |
| 6/9/2009 | 10:00 | GE | Industrial Production MoM (sa) | APR | 0.00% | 0.30% |
