Market Review – 31/05/2010 17:05GMTJapanese yen falls on political turmoil before rebounding on profit-taking in late European sessionThe Japanese currency fell against major currencies on Monday after a poll showed Sixty-three percent of Japanese voters want Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to resign as he abandoned a campaign pledge to move the U.S. base and fired Japan’s Social Democratic Party’s only Cabinet minister Fukushima after she refused to endorse the PM’s decision. The greenback rose against the Japanese yen from 90.85 to 91.63 before falling again to 90.81 in late European session on profit-taking. Euro, aussie and sterling rose against the Japanese yen from 111.50 to 112.95, from 76.69 to 77.95 and from 131.38 to 132.94 before retreating.
The single currency extended last Friday’s sharp fall on the downgrade of Spain’s sovereign debt rating to 1.2255 before rebounding to 1.2335 on short-covering as data showed traders are reducing bearish bets on the currency and then traded sideways in European session due to U.K. and U.S. holiday.
Sterling was dumped due to the resignation of UK’s coalition party’s Chief Treasury Secretary David Laws (who was instrumental in the negotiations in setting up the latest coalition government) over the weekend on revelations about his parliamentary expenses, however, active cross buying in sterling (eur/gbp tumbled fm 0.8533 to 0.8443) lifted price and cable rallied from intra-day low of 1.4360 to as high as 1.4549.
The Canadian dollar advanced as a report showed Canada’s GDP rose by 0.6% in the first quarter, stronger than economists’ forecast of 0.5% rise, expanding at the fastest pace in a decade. U.S. currency fell against the Canadian dollar from 1.0552 to 1.0414 before rebounding to 1.0499 on
short-covering in late European session.
Tuesday will see the release of Australia retail sales and rate decision, Swiss GDP and PMI, Germany retail sales, manufacturing PMI and unemployment rate, E.U. Manufacturing PMI and unemployment rate, U.K. manufacturing PMI, Canada’s rate decision, U.S. construction spending and ISM manufacturing.
