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24 Feb 2014
Asia Recap: Yen and Aussie hold key levels
FXStreet (Bali) - The Australian Dollar was the main laggard of the session, despite recovering most of its losses late in Asia, while the Japanese Yen was the leader of the board.
The Australian Dollar was pressured along the first few hours of Tokyo, wits the pair descending from 0.8985 to test last week's low at 0.8935 before pushing back up almost paring all losses. Monday rarely sees sustainable follow-through, and that is exactly what happened when AUD/USD was faced with 0.8930/35 support.
Talk that China Industrial Bank had curbed lending to property developers weighed on the Shanghai index (down over 2%) coupled with a weakening Yuan, with today's USD/CNY fix at 6.1189 vs 6.0914 prior close (highest since December 20, 2013), served as catalyst dragging the Aussie lower.
The Yen tracked movements in the Nikkei as usual. The topside failure ahead of 15,000 in the Japanese index, which came combined with the USD/JPY entering resistance zone at 102.70, led to an abrupt retreat in the pair, edging lower until 102.15 from a session high of 102.68.
In the Asian economic calendar, there were no releases of significance affecting currencies. That said, China published January's new home prices, at +9.6% y/y vs +9.9% in December, while in New Zealand, credit card spending for January came at +1.0% m/m vs -0.7% last.
Main headlines in Asia
G20 communique commits to $2 trillion in additional output
ECB ready to act if price outlook worsens - Draghi
Draghi highlights importance of March ECB meeting
China House prices +9.6% y/y vs 9.9% in December
CNY slide putting pressure on a long market - RBS
AUD/USD lower on Yuan weakness
Shanghai sell-off leads to further Aussie selling
The Australian Dollar was pressured along the first few hours of Tokyo, wits the pair descending from 0.8985 to test last week's low at 0.8935 before pushing back up almost paring all losses. Monday rarely sees sustainable follow-through, and that is exactly what happened when AUD/USD was faced with 0.8930/35 support.
Talk that China Industrial Bank had curbed lending to property developers weighed on the Shanghai index (down over 2%) coupled with a weakening Yuan, with today's USD/CNY fix at 6.1189 vs 6.0914 prior close (highest since December 20, 2013), served as catalyst dragging the Aussie lower.
The Yen tracked movements in the Nikkei as usual. The topside failure ahead of 15,000 in the Japanese index, which came combined with the USD/JPY entering resistance zone at 102.70, led to an abrupt retreat in the pair, edging lower until 102.15 from a session high of 102.68.
In the Asian economic calendar, there were no releases of significance affecting currencies. That said, China published January's new home prices, at +9.6% y/y vs +9.9% in December, while in New Zealand, credit card spending for January came at +1.0% m/m vs -0.7% last.
Main headlines in Asia
G20 communique commits to $2 trillion in additional output
ECB ready to act if price outlook worsens - Draghi
Draghi highlights importance of March ECB meeting
China House prices +9.6% y/y vs 9.9% in December
CNY slide putting pressure on a long market - RBS
AUD/USD lower on Yuan weakness
Shanghai sell-off leads to further Aussie selling