Online Forex Trading News

ASIA SUMMARY

The mid-week Asia Session brought multiple market personalities. Immediately following the turn, rumors speculating that U.S. and Iran tensions had escalated into action flew around trading desks. After a calming of the seas, for about three hours, the market volatility erupted again via Japanese Yen buying across the board. The market has again settled down as of this writing, but the damage has been done. As far as economic data, Asia traders were limited to seeing one release out of New Zealand, which had no major market impact.

As the New York close occurred at 1700 EST, conversations quickly bounced around the globe, from trader to trader, that the U.S. and Iran engaged in “war games” off the coast. Before any hard facts were solidified, market players “bought the rumor and sold the fact”, as the Wall Street adage says. EURUSD popped a quick 20 points to the eventual Asia highs around 1.3370. Conversely, USDJPY slid about 15 points to 117.65. Within minutes though, there was a broad-based relief reversal as the rumors went unfounded.

For the next 3 hours, traders returned to a low volume, tight range trading environment. USDJPY and the JPY crosses were bid up into the Tokyo fix at 2055 EST, where a top was found, specifically at 118.00 for the former. These levels would be in the rear-view mirror within a few minutes. The pairs began to fade lower, with EURJPY leaning on critical support at 157.20. In a blink, as it usually happens, the neckline of a short-term head and shoulders broke, and USDJPY and the crosses went into a freefall. EURJPY found a bottom 60 points later in the 156.60 area. In broad terms, the carry trade is subtly back in vogue, and today it was sold.

London Economic Data (EST)

0200 March UK Nationwide House Prices s.a., consensus: +0.7% MoM

0200 March UK Nationwide House Prices s.a., consensus: +9.6% YoY

0210 April German GfK Consumer Confidence Survey, consensus: 4.5

0400 Feb EuroZone M3, consensus: +9.8% YoY

0430 UK Q4 GDP – Final, consensus: +0.8% QoQ

0430 UK Q4 GDP – Final, consensus: +3.0% YoY