Market News

As it holds close to a 3-week low established against the U.S. Dollar in the Asian session, the Euro is on track to post the worst week in several months.

Both the Euro and the Australian Dollar took hard hits in trading yesterday and are today still within striking distance of the recently established lows. Several events combined to work against the commodity-linked currencies, including Tuesday’s Fed minutes and yesterday’s ECB meeting and dismal outcome of the Spanish bond auction.

The Australian Dollar struck an 11-week trough against the U.S. Dollar following an unexpected outcome in balance of trade figures.

The Euro fell broadly in Asian trading as the repercussions of yesterday’s less than impressive jobs and manufacturing data continue to take its toll.

The Japanese Yen, considered among the best of the safe haven currencies, eased back in Asian trading today following the several days uptrend as a result of the Japanese fiscal year end.

The Yen’s rising momentum seems finally to have faded, but before it did the Japanese currency briefly struck a 3-week peak against the U.S. Dollar, pushed higher by speculators who had hoped that exporters’ repatriations flows would give a bigger boost to the Yen.

The Japanese Yen firmed broadly earlier today but analysts believe it could still be under some buying pressure as Japan’s fiscal year end approaches.

As the fiscal year end approaches in Japan, the Yen inched higher versus the U.S. Dollar and broadly against other currencies, supported by Japanese exporters opening long positions in the currency.

The U.S. Dollar came under pressure again as Ben Bernanke, the head of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, signaled that monetary policy would continue to remain accommodative, giving rise to renewed hopes of more easing.

During the early Asian trading session, the U.S. Dollar recovered from a 10-day trough versus the Japanese Yen as Japanese importers used the pair’s dip to buy into the greenback.

As Tokyo-based importers took advantage of the earlier rally, the Japanese Yen saw some slight weakening during the Asian trading session but the newly raised concerns over global growth are likely to send investors back to safe haven currencies.

China’s Flash PMI data for February showed a surprising contraction, an event which pushed the Australian Dollar lower against the U.S. Dollar. Get today's news here!

Earlier in the Asian session, the Euro struck a 2-week peak against the U.S. Dollar as recent clearer signs of stabilization in the Eurozone helped to support the common currency.

The EUR/USD pair steadied at $1.3235, just off a 1-week high of $1.3266 struck yesterday, helped there by short selling of the U.S. Dollar following news that the ECB bought no sovereign debt last week.

The Japanese Yen was on the defensive during the Asian trading session as the common currency Euro reached a 5-month peak against it; as reported at 1:08 p.m. Get today's news here.