Market News

The Japanese Yen held onto earlier gains in the moments after the Bank of Japan made good on the widely expected move to increase stimulus, this time by hiking asset purchases an additional ¥10 trillion.

The Japanese Yen was broadly lower during the Asian trading session, striking a 16-month trough versus the common currency Euro and a 7½-month low against the greenback, as investors consider what tomorrow’s conclusion of the Bank of Japan’s policy meeting might hold.

After taking a swift hard drop on the first business day after the new Japanese government was elected, the Japanese Yen steadied finally on Tuesday.

The Japanese Yen plummeted to its lowest level against the greenback in more than 20-months earlier in the Asian session following the expected win of Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

The Japanese Yen fell to a 9-month low against the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session today as investors await the installation of a new Japanese government that is certain to aggressively weaken the Yen in order to growth the Japanese economy, the third largest in the world after the U.S. and China.

The U.S. Dollar was clearly on the back foot during the Asian trading session after Ben Bernanke, the chief of the U.S. central bank, confirmed expectations of another round of stimulus that was quickly dubbed QE4, an announcement which broadly weakened the greenback.

The U.S. Dollar came under broad pressure earlier in the Asian trading session with investors speculating that the greenback will once again be devalued as the U.S. central bank announces another round of stimulus later today.

The Euro edged higher versus the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session as Mario Monti, the Italian Prime Minister, sought to assuage investors’ concerns about Italy’s fiscal outlook.

The common currency Euro was close to striking a 2-week trough versus the U.S. Dollar early during the Asian trading session on the heels of a political crisis which appears to be brewing in Italy.

Markets were disappointed with the outcome of Thursday’s European Central Bank policy meeting and Mario Draghi’s comments afterward and as a result sent the Euro hurtling toward its sharpest drop in a month against the U.S. Dollar.

The Euro edged off a 7-week peak against the U.S. Dollar and a multi-month peak against the Japanese Yen during the Asian trading session as investors take a breather to wait and see what the European Central Bank might next do as the conclusion of today’s policy setting meeting.

The Canadian Dollar edged higher against its neighbor the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session after the Canadian central bank announced that it would leave interest rates unchanged but reaffirmed its outlook for tighter monetary policy in the coming months.

The U.S. Dollar edged lower against the Japanese yen during the Asian trading session following economic news from the U.S. which showed that manufacturing activity struck a 3-month low last month, a level unseen in several years.

The Euro earlier gave back gains that had been eked out last week, following the downgrade of the Eurozone’s bailout fund mechanism by Moody’s credit rating agency.

The Euro edged off a 1-month peak against the U.S. Dollar during the Asian trading session after comments from one key Republican policymaker in the U.S. put a dent in the fragile optimism that the U.S. fiscal cliff challenge was to be put to rest.