Category: Other Forex Stuff
US labour market shows signs of spring
Dollar soars vs. yen and Swiss franc after payrolls Dudley’s dovishness tempers the dollar’s gains Two more reasons to doubt the yen UK Q1 recovery in doubt China’s recovery seems to be slowing It is nothing to write home about, but the US labour market continues to show gradual, if unspectacular, improvement. The good news
Carry trades gather pace
The first day of the month has seen the yen and also Swiss franc losing ground during Asia trade, with leveraged funds taking the opportunity to place fresh risk positions. This is the seventh day of USD/JPY gains, currently at 5-wk highs above the 83.50 level. The overnight release of the all important Tankan survey
The beginning of the end of QE?
The next meeting of the FOMC may still be four weeks ago, but Fed officials have been hitting the newswires en masse recently declaring that they would like to see quantitative easing end in June. Yesterday, the dollar got a boost from some hawkish comments from St Louis Fed President Bullard, who declared that the
The dollar’s on a roll
Noticeable after a challenging few weeks is the creeping strength of the dollar over recent days. We are not talking about a huge move – so far, the dollar index is up by around 1% from last Tuesday’s low. This improved showing by the dollar in some part reflects the shifting weight of Fed opinion
Eurozone fudges the fixes
Middle East unrest intensifies Portugal election creates bond market dilemma Fed officials sounding more optimistic on recovery Sterling losing its shine Return of risk appetite hobbles the Swiss franc Events on Friday and over the weekend have perfectly illustrated how the agenda for resolving the euro crisis has been overtaken by domestic politics. Finland
The euro stands its ground
The euro was one of the best performers during the European session on Thursday, despite the looming election in Portugal, the assumed EU bailout and the prospect of a delay to agreement on reform of the EFSF. There were three over-arching reasons for the single currency’s vigour. The first was the weakness of both the
Portugal; at the cliff-edge?
Events over the past 24 hours have served to highlight the institutional short-comings of the single currency that we’ve highlighted before. Firstly, Portuguese prime minister Socrates has resigned, failing to secure further austerity measures. As such, an early election looks inevitable, as does a bail-out from the EU. Secondly, all indications are that the EU
Markets calmer but doubts abound
It felt that markets were desperately trying to put the past couple of weeks behind them during Tuesday, with some proving to be more successful than others. The biggest snap-back has been in underlying volatility, with the VIX equity volatility index pushing back towards to within a whisker of the 20 level, above which it
Impact of G7 yen intervention muted
Friday’s G7 words proving stronger than actions Oil volatility remaining high Pound feeling gloomy The dollar index falls to its lowest level since late 2009 Guest post by FxPro There was a muted feeling on Friday in the wake of the co-ordinated intervention to push the yen lower. Indeed, once the intial announcement and BOJ moves
G7 has all to play for
Last night’s decision by the G7 to intervene to prevent the Japanese yen from strengthening is both intelligent and necessary. At a time when the major advanced economies are still concerned about the sustainability and durability of their recoveries (with the exception of Germany), Japan’s tragic misfortunes will undoubtedly hobble the economy for some time