Forex Trading News
Dollar, Euro, Pound & Yen

01:00 Thursday 24 June, 2010

Overseas funds poured into Asia in the first five months of the year, only to recede. Some say now is the time to get back into certain Asian markets. Alice Chan of Thornton Global Wealth Management tells MarketWatch's Lisa Twaronite about ways to do it.

20:57 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

Asian markets mostly fell Wednesday after a drop in U.S. existing home sales hurt sentiment and softer commodity prices weighed on material stocks.

Japan's Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.9% and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 skidded 1.6%, China's Shanghai Composite gave up 0.7%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.2%, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.3% and Taiwan's Taiex slid 0.4%. India's Sensex inched up 0.2% and Singapore's Straits Times slid 0.4% by afternoon.

"The optimism we saw a few days ago has been snuffed by that weak U.S. home sales data," said BBY senior institutional trader Peter Copeland in Sydney. "But if you believe the container volumes data coming out of China, they suggest the global consumer is back. I think we will be in a holding pattern before tonight's FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) decision and policy statement."

20:52 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

U.S. stock futures rose Wednesday, pointing to a partial recapturing of the previous session's losses as the Federal Reserve is expected to again refrain from signalling interest rate hikes.

S&P 500 futures rose 4.7 points to 1,095.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 7.75 points to 1,886.00. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44 points.

U.S. stocks finished sharply lower Tuesday, hurt by disappointing housing data as well as a judge ruling against an Obama administration moratorium on deepwater drilling -- a decision the market interpreted as spurring protracted legal battles ahead. The S&P 500 dropped 1.6%.

Attention turns to the Federal Open Market Committee, which releases its interest rate decision at 2:15 p.m. Eastern. Economists don't expect a rate move or even a changing of the language saying rates will be kept low for an extended period of time.

"The unemployment rate is still very elevated at 9.7% in May, core CPI inflation remained benign and headline CPI inflation has slowed as oil prices have retreated, and Michigan five-year inflation expectations were at the lower end of the recent range in June," said economists at RDQ Economics.

15:24 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

The dollar edged up against the yen in Asia Wednesday as Japanese importers and institutional investors scooped up the U.S. currency after it fell overnight.

But sharper gains in the dollar were unlikely for the rest of the day, as many investors bet the U.S. Federal Reserve may take a more cautious tone on the economy at the end of a regular policy meeting later in the day, dealers said.

Recent U.S. jobs, consumer spending and housing data have been weak, casting doubt on the health of the country's economic recovery. That could prompt the Federal Open Market Committee to adjust its economic assessment, which may drag on the dollar by reducing expectations for any nearer-term monetary tightening, dealers said.

"Many people are expecting some kind of change to the FOMC language to reflect the recently weaker data," said Yuichiro Harada, a senior vice president in the forex division at Mizuho Corporate Bank. Harada said expectations for U.S. rates to stay low for the time being could hurt the greenback.

15:20 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

China's yuan nudged higher against the U.S. dollar in Asian trade Wednesday, though the size of the advance was muted compared to swings earlier in the week, with the market weighing up whether China is seeking to discourage rapid appreciation of the currency. The dollar was quoted at 6.8041 yuan at midday, down 0.04% from its Tuesday close of 6.8136 yuan. In the previous session, the Chinese currency gave back about half its gains from Monday, amid reports that China's state-owned banks had been heavy buyers of dollars during the session in an effort to dampen expectations that the currency will appreciate in a straight line. "It appears that officials are trying to introduce two-way risk into the market while preventing excess volatility," wrote RBC Capital Markets in a note.

11:49 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

The price of gold, which reached a record high Monday, look set to rise further, technical analysis suggests. The $1300 per ounce level is within reach, and further gains are likely above that mark

11:44 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

It may be too early to bet on China's continued role as premier resource buyer, even though Beijing's weekend decision to revisit its pre-crisis currency policy promises to bolster the yuan's purchasing power over time.

One factor, a top HSBC analyst says, is that the yuan's rise will likely be much slower than when China first loosened its currency in July 2005. At that time, a virtuous cycle of rising real-estate prices and inflows of speculative capital put upward pressure on the yuan.

But this time, HSBC's Hong Kong-based co-head of Asian economics research Qu Hongbin said in a research note: "We believe the pace of appreciation against the U.S. dollar will be much slower than the pre-crisis rate."

08:34 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

The dollar recovered some earlier gains against the euro Tuesday, as stocks turned notably lower in afternoon trading, indicating to currency traders that investors' appetite for riskier assets diminished.

The dollar had been higher earlier in the session as a downgrade of a major French bank resurrected worries about the European economic outlook and as enthusiasm over China's revised currency policy faded.

Limiting the index's gains, the British pound turned higher after Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's emergency budget proposed 40 billion pounds ($59 billion) in spending cuts and tax increases a year by 2015.

08:29 Wednesday 23 June, 2010

Energy stocks including Chevron, Halliburton and Schlumberger led U.S. stocks broadly lower Tuesday after the White House vowed to appeal a judge's decision to block the six-month moratorium on new deepwater drilling projects.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 148.89 points, or 1.43%, to 10293.52, its biggest one-day drop since June 4. Alcoa was the measure's worst performer, with a drop of 43 cents, or 3.7%, to 11.29. Caterpillar was also weak, with a decline of 1.96, or 3%, to 64.11, and Home Depot fell 82 cents, or 2.6%, to 30.61, hurt by an unexpected drop in existing-home sales.

Chevron tumbled 1.72, or 2.3%, to 74, and Exxon Mobil slipped 1.19, or 1.9%, to 61.94, as the energy sector slumped on expectations of legal wrangling between the industry and the Obama administration over the deepwater drilling moratorium. A federal judge in Louisiana Tuesday ruled against the ban, but the White House responded by saying it would immediately appeal the injunction.

"It's a big negative for the industry if the moratorium is not lifted," said Ben Halliburton, chief investment officer at Tradition Capital Management. "Clearly, the companies impacted are going to have negative revisions on their earnings and cash flows if they're involved in the deepwater Gulf."

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