- Full G20 communique
- G20 made it clear that Europe needs to boost the size of its firewall, something Germany has been reluctant to do
- IMF reforms and increased funding were also high on the agenda
- Geithner: Risks to global economy are diminishing
- New Zealand shows small trade deficit in January, when a small surplus was expected
- Julia Gillard easily defeats Kevin Rudd to retain Australian PM position
- Regional bourses were mixed, with the Nikkei and Shanghai more than 0.5% higher but Australian and Korean markets falling
- Gold $1776/oz; Oil $109.50/bbl
The only action in the market happened much earlier this morning when ‘risk-on’ trades reacted to seemingly positive headlines out of Mexico but since then all pairs have returned to their NY closing levels and traded quietly.
USD/JPY closed in NY near 81.15 but rallied strongly in early trade when the risk-on sentiment was at its height. The pair topped out near 81.60 and then fell back very quickly towards 81.00 as Japanese accounts took profit and sold AUD/JPY in particular. Technical support for USD/JPY is at the top of the Ichimoku cloud, now sitting near 80.95. Ranges: 80.98/81.61; EUR/JPY 108.92/109.89
AUD/USD popped back above 1.0700 on the early risk positivity but profit taking in AUD/JPY and some quite heavy selling from real money accounts, sent the AUD tumbling quite quickly. It has returned to its NY closing level as interest evaporated. Ranges: 1.0654/1.0716
EUR/USD has been surprisingly quiet with cross pairings like EUR/AUD and EUR/JPY accounting for most of the flows. Tonights German parliamentary debate on further Greek funding looms as the big event risk. Ranges: 1.3441/78
Cable 1.5860/99; EUR/CHF 1.2039/54