Out of the gate to start the week, the yen and dollar looked stronger as currencies continued their link to equities and carried over the lackluster performance from Wall Street on Friday. However, as the day moved on and Asian stocks picked up steam led by the Japanese Nikkei, the yen and dollar sank as risk came back to the market. The US dollar and the Japanese yen have a propensity to suffer amidst positive economic news and soaring equity markets. The Nikkei 225 was up over 2% at a point and crossed the 10,100 level to a nine month high ahead of a week of what are hoped to be solid earnings out of Japan. After dropping to 134.25 levels after an open near 90, the EUR/JPY followed the equity markets higher, and breeched the 135.00 big figure prior to the London open. AUD/JPY took that move one step further, slipping below 77.20 from an open near 77.65 and subsequently took off to over 77.85 as a high. GBP/JPY and NZD/JPY both followed, but in a less dramatic fashion. USD/JPY was in a 25 pip range but traded sideways for the session.
Let's not leave out the dollar, which as well was weaker across the board. EUR/USD opened a bit higher at 1.4225 and collapsed to a low of just at 141.70 before blasting back to 142.20 levels early in London. GBP/USD took a hit from a newspaper report stating that UK banks were in line for more losses, pulling the pound to a touch over 1.6380, but later the pair almost regained its opening level of 1.6470 but fell short by 20 pips. AUD/USD reached lofty heights above 0.8200 but whether these levels could be maintained remains to be seen.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected
| 27-31 JUL | JUL | UK | Nat'wide House prices sa (MoM) | JUL | 0.90% | 0.20% |
| 27-31 JUL | JUL | UK | Nat'wide House prices nsa(YoY) | JUL | -9.30% | -7.60% |
| 7/27/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Import Price Index (MoM) | JUN | 0.00% | 0.70% |
| 7/27/2009 | 6:00 | GE | Import Price Index (YoY) | JUN | -10.40% | -11.00% |
| 7/27/2009 | 6:10 | GE | GfK Consumer Confidence Survey | AUG | 2.9 | 2.9 |
| 7/27/2009 | 8:00 | EC | Euro-Zone M3 s.a. (YoY) | JUN | 3.70% | 3.50% |
| 7/27/2009 | 8:00 | EC | Euro-Zone M3 s.a. 3 mth ave. | JUN | 4.50% | 4.00% |
