All higher but Hang-Seng

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Local share markets in the Asia-Pacific are mostly all in the green but the Hang-Seng from Hong-Kong, that opened with a gap lower and trades last around the 22750 points, down -0.73% for the day so far. Nikkei index instead opened higher around the 14500 points, but soon reversed course and went into the negative dropping more than 250 points, by the time BoJ Kuroda was giving a speech. Last at 14400, the Nikkei is up +0.61%.

Korean Kospi is up +0.68%, with Australian ASX also higher by +0.18% despite all news coming out of Australia being worse than expected, and the IMF lowering GDP forecasts for China. Shanghai Composite is also up for the session, +0.35% so far.

May 29, 2013

AUD/JPY continues to find firm bids near 97.00

The AUD/JPY is sliding lower in Asia trade, down 62 pips at 97.83 last. Earlier in the session, we saw release of Construction Work Done out of Australia which came in below expectations at -2.0% actual vs. 1.0% forecast, as well as Japan Retail Trade which printed -0.1% actual vs. -0.4% forecast.

EUR/USD technical picture continues to sour, more declines to come?

The EUR/USD finished the day sharply lower, down 81 pips at 1.2852. However, the main story of the day was the sharp rise in US treasury yields, which finished at the highest level in a year (10 yr yield rose 16 bps to 2.17%). The catalyst for the move higher appeared to be better than expected economic data out of the US, specifically the Consumer Confidence Board number which came in at 76.2 vs. 71.0 forecast.