- The RBA minutes show that a rate cut was seriously contemplated
- Today is the 12 month anniversary of the Bear Stearns collapse
- US Treasury is looking at ways of recouping any bonuses that AIG is trying to pay
An extremely quiet Asian trading session saw the USD strengthen across the board initially as dealers chased weak stops in the EUR/USD. An inability to get below 1.2955 saw shorts starting to cover and the pair jumped back above 1.3000 and spent the rest of the session consolidating quietly just above that level. The other majors followed suit with USD/JPY capped by exporter offers above 98.60 and the cable seeing some decent buying interest at 1.4050.
Regional stock markets were generally higher with the Nikkei and Kospi up by 2.75%, Shanghai by 1.75%, the All Ords by 1% and the Hang Seng by 0.6%. Gold lost $1 to $922/oz and Brent Crude lost 50cents to just under $46/bbl.
Ranges: EUR/USD 1.2955/1.3029, USD/JPY 98.16/51, 1.4059/1.4134 in the cable, USD/CHF 1.1821/67, AUD/USD .6579/.6615 and EUR/JPY 127.24/128.30.