Market Review – 21/06/2010 22:38 GMTEuro falls as optimism fades from China’s currency moveThe single currency rallied to a high as 1.2490 in the NZ session on Monday due to improved risk appetite after weekend’s announcement by PBOC to allow greater flexibility of the yuan ahead of the coming G20 meeting prompted investors to buy riskier assets initially. Stocks and commodity currencies also rallied in Asia and Europe. However, euro ended the day down against the dollar as the single currency was pressured by Fitch’s downgrade of French bank BNP Paribas, this action had caused the yuan-induced euphoria to fade quickly on lingering worries over the European debt crisis. ECB’s Trichet said that governments which breached the EU’s fiscal rules could face tougher punishment, such as loss of voting rights and his comments also pressured euro, price eventually fell to 1.2303 in NY afternoon while DJI also pared all initial gains and ended the day down. Cross-selling in euro especially against the Swiss franc also pressured euro as eur/chf fell to a fresh lifetime low of 1.3665.
In other news, Fitch Ratings cut its rating on French bank BNP Paribas on Monday by one notch to AA- but the outlook is stable. Euro was pressured as investors were worried as the European debt crisis would spread to the European banking system. Earlier, the PBOC said over weekend that ‘ a more flexible currency will direct resources to domestic-demand driven sectors such as services and help curb an excessive reliance on exports’.
Versus the Japanese yen, although the greenback opened lower in NZ and fell to 90.01, bargain hunting by Japanese importers quickly lifted the pair and the yuan’s fixing (6.8275) was the same as Friday’s level. The pair then maintained a firm undertone as firmness in Asian equities (N225 up 2.4% and Shanghai Composite up by 2.9%) boosted risk appetite for yen carry trades. The pair rose sharply and eventually reached 91.48 in European mid-day. However, the pair retreated sharply from there and ended the day at 91.09 as DJI pared initial gains of 144 points and ended the day down by 8 points at 10442.
The British pound rallied in tandem with euro in NZ and climbed to 1.4936 at European opening but cable fell sharply in tandem with euro and weakened to 1.4738 in NY afternoon.
The commodity currencies also rose as PBOC’s move would boost China’s buying power abroad and aud/usd surged to 0.8860 while nzd/usd rose to 0.7153 and spot gold hit a record high of 1265.10. However, the commodity currencies pared their gains later due to euro’s weakness.
Economic data to be released on Tuesday include: Swiss Trade balance , Germany Ifo index , EU Current account , Consumer Confidence , Canada CPI , U.S. Existing home sales.
