Forex New

ASIA SUMMARY

The first Asia Session of the week opened little changed from Friday’s closes. The weekend news was limited, highlighted by tensions between Iran and the UK due to the retention of 15 British soldiers that may now be tried for espionage in the Iranian judicial system. Despite the rattling of global relations, there was no effect on the GBP. Nonetheless, volume and volatility picked up once market players began to trade at 1700 EST. The session has been characterized by a pushing of key short-term technical levels that have held fairly well, especially in USDJPY and EURJPY. Despite the resiliency of these pairs, the Japanese Yen is higher across the board, leaving USDJPY and the JPY crosses in the red.

EURUSD was the first mover of the session, opening at 1.3285 and trading straight to the highs ahead of 1.3300. USD pressure quickly reversed and USDJPY was bid up to the highs above 118.10. As quickly as EURUSD put in a top, it found its lows within the opening two hours of trading below 1.3260. The cross was the most interesting to watch, despite the healthy ranges posted in the majors. EURJPY barely ticked higher… for the entire session. The pair drifted lower with USDJPY from the start. When the Greenback caught a bid, the cross slid with a stop-loss run lower in EURUSD. As of this writing, all three pairs – which are the only “story pairs” of the session – are net lower, with EURJPY taking the worst of it to the tone of about 50 points, sitting at the 55 day simple moving average.

The Asia Session had only one early economic release. At 1845 EST, New Zealand Trade Balance came in much better than expected. The market expectations were pegged at -250m, and the actual result was only -127m. Both the Imports and Exports were light versus the consensus, hitting the market at 2.97 and 2.90 respectively. There are no major releases on the London economic agenda.