ASIA session

An early morning sell off of risk has been replaced with aggressive buying ahead of the pending London open. Early concerns over whether EU finance ministers could hammer out an agreement to shore up the current EFSF rescue package before the culmination of the two day meetings later in the day added selling pressure to risk pairs. While Germany remains opposed to any further increase in the bailout fund, the majority of other ministers look to push through a deal under a unified front that will hopefully add global confidence to the currency. While the EUR/USD saw a low near 1.3250 in the first half of the session, the post lunch session saw the pair explode to highs just over 1.3320 for the day. Across the spectrum of risk the story remained similar…

The AUD/USD saw early lows near 0.9895 erased by 0.9945 highs during this move despite the fact that estimates for the Queensland flooding damage came in at $20 Billion (AUD), much higher than the earlier estimates of $13 Billion (AUD). GBP/USD skipped the early session lows as it churned higher throughout the session on better than anticipated Nationwide Consumer Confidence, 53, versus 47, and RICS house Prices which came in at -39% versus -43%. The GBP/USD pair grew from 1.5880 to just over 1.5940 on the day with the lower EUR/GBP contributing.

While USD/JPY was stuck in a cramped 25 pip range, the crosses rebounded nicely. EUR/JPY moved over 30 pips off of lows to post 109.90 highs and the GBP/JPY remained just near 131.60 highs heading into the London session. Gold, XAU/USD took advantage of greenback funk to post $4.50 gains at $1365.50 highs.

Ahead we have some important UK data including CPI, core CPI, RPI and HPI, followed by German ZEW data later in the day. As well the US returns later from a three day weekend

Источник: FOREX.com

18.01.2011