- A 5-fold increase in the Japan-South Korea currency swap line saw USD/KRW fall by over 1%
- China commerce minister comments on US currency bill, tells US not to politicise an economic issue and that the bill violates trade rules
- China Jan-Sept FDI +17% YoY to $87 billion
- Regional stockmarkets rise by over 0.5% on average
- Gold steady at $1663/oz
Most of the action today was in the regional currencies with USD/KRW falling quite swiftly after the announcement that Japan and South Korea had expanded their currency swap arrangements 5-fold. This put bearish pressure on the USD across the major pairings as well.
EUR/USD closed in NY around 1.3740 after a very choppy session saw it up and down inside a 150 pip range. There have been no EZ-related headlines to move the EUR and it was the Japan/South Korea swap which triggered some USD selling. EUR/USD gapped swiftly from 1.3740 to 1.3770 before steadying, and then moving above 1.3800 in late trade. Overall range 1.3723/1.3805. Sell orders noted 1.3820/30 with stops above 1.3850.
AUD/USD took a similar path to EUR/USD, taking leads from USD/Asia, although some decent corporate demand was noted as was demand out of Japan. Range: 1.0229/85
USD/JPY again traded a miserable 20 pip range between 76.63/83. USD/CHF .8954/.9000, and Cable 1.5697/1.5743