The Japanese yen remained just under 84.00 against the dollar here in Asia despite the constant drone of BoJ jawboning out of Tokyo. While Finance Minister Noda was exclaiming that the BoJ was working on simulations for FX intervention to help stem the rise of the yen, USD/JPY showed its disobedience as it made its way to lows near 83.65. Most traders do not believe that the BoJ will intervene in Forex markets unless the yen gets closer to the 80.00 big figure. USD/JPY moves looked hesitant at best while the yen crosses wilted as the day wore on and equities pared some of their earlier gains. EUR/JPY slid from 106.90 to 106.20 and the GBP/JPY softened to 129.25 from 129.90. The EUR/USD saw little movement between 1.2715 and 1.2735.
The big winner of the session is once again the Australian dollar, as positive employment data, (Unemployment Rate 5.1% vs. 5.2%, and Employment change, +30.9K vs. +27.2K added jobs), helped to propel the AUD/USD from 0.9175 to over 0.9235 in a few brief minutes. The pair eventually settled down just over the 0.9200 big figure. AUD/NZD blasted through 1.2780 to post almost 80 pip gains on the day. Tomorrow’s Chinese Trade Balance data will offer another hoop for the muscular Aussie dollar to jump through. Prior to that though the UK has some top tier data ahead with the Bank of England rate decision which looks to see rates remaining at 0.50% followed by Trade Balance and Unemployment data out of the US.
