Forex

Mr. Nishimura: “… the level of 100 yen for the 1 U.S. dollar will not be a problem for the Japanese economy

Asian and European trading sessions:

Euro: The EUR / USD pair traded in a narrow range of $ 1.3295-23 during the Asian session. On the next following session the euro strengthened against the dollar on results of the Euro-Zone Purchasing Manager Index Composite report , which showed that activity in the private sector continued to grow in January, rising this month to 48.2, compared to 47.2 in December, where the expectations of experts were at around 47.5. Meanwhile, the Euro-Zone Purchasing Manager Index Services report which measures the index of business activity in the services sector rose to a level of 48.3 up from 47.8 in December. Another data confirmed that the index of business activity in the manufacturing sector rose to the level of 47.5 from 46.1 .The EUR / USD pair moved to the level of $1.3357 on this positive news.

British Pound: The pound fell and the GBP / USD pair dropped to $ 1.5758 area when the published data on the UK showed that the number of approved applications for mortgage loans remained almost unchanged in December, reaching with 33.6K units, while analysts had expected to grow to 34.1. The published today retail sales data the growth of which slowed slightly in January, but was still higher than expected could not help the currency to rebound from deep lows. The Reported Sales of retailers reported an increase in sales compared to last year resulting increase to 17 marks which beat the average of predictions of drop to 10 and compared to 19 in December.

Japanese Yen: Against the published today data which reported the growth of the performance of China’s economy where the manufacturing PMI rose in January achieving the highest value in the last two years, the yen immediately weakened against most of its rivals. Also, today in Japan was published statistics on the trade deficit of the country. Accordingly report of the Ministry of Finance, the index recorded 6.9 trillion yen (78.5 billion dollars).This figure was the worst for the state in the history of Japan. The trade deficit in 2011was much lower - $ 54 billion over the past 12 months, the volume of Japanese exports fell by 2.7% to 63.7 trillion yen (722.6 billion dollars), imports increased by 3.8% - up to 70.7 trillion yen (801.01 billion dollars). The USD / JPY pair rose to Y89.72 area during the European session.

American trading session:

Japanese Yen: The currency fell for the first time in four days against the dollar after the Deputy Minister of Economy of Japan Mr. Nishimura said that level of 100 yen for the U.S. dollar will not be a problem for the currency and its collapse is not over yet. The yen fell by at least 1% against all 16 major currencies, and the USD / JPY pair rose to Y90.72 during the session.

Australian and New Zealand dollar: These currencies fell against the dollar after it was reported that North Korea may begin testing nuclear weapons.

Gold: The gold became cheaper amid growing confidence in the global economic recovery, which reduceâ the attractiveness of low-risk assets as gold. The February futures price of gold fell today to 1664.70 dollars per ounce on COMEX.

Oil: The Oil rose in price on the background of positive data from China, Germany and the U.S., the result of which indicated an increase in the global economy. Today the U.S. Department of Energy has published that the Crude oil inventories rose by 2.81 million barrels, while gasoline inventories fell by 1.74 million barrels compared to the expected growth of 1 million. The March futures price of WTI rose to 96.66 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.