Yen Shows Mixed Trading Against Majors
Thursday morning in Asia, the Japanese yen showed mixed performance against its major counterparts. While the yen advanced against the euro and the franc, it showed choppy trading against the pound. Against the dollar, the yen gained in early Asian deals, but reversed direction around 8:10 pm ET.
After a positive start on the back of a good show by stocks on Wall Street amid hopes of an economic revival, the Japanese market drifted lower today with investors choosing to trim positions at higher levels.
The benchmark index Nikkei, which rose to 9,994 earlier this morning, is currently down in the red at 9,925, down by around 15 points or 0.14% from its previous close. On Wednesday, the Nikkei 225 had ended at 9,340, recording a loss of 18.51 points, or 0.19%.
The monetary base in Japan expanded by 6.4 percent on year in June, standing at 93.639 trillion yen, the Bank of Japan said today. That follows a 7.9 percent gain in May and an 8.2 percent increase in April.
The seasonally adjusted monetary base fell an annual 8.8 percent to 94.448 trillion yen. For the second quarter, the monetary base was up 7.5 percent on year.
The yen that closed yesterday’s trading at 136.70 against the euro strengthened to 136.26 during early Asian deals on Thursday. The near term resistance level for the yen is seen at 133.6.
In early Asian trading on Thursday, the yen rose to 89.66 against the Swiss franc. This may be compared to Wednesday’s close of 89.96. On the upside, 89.3 is seen as the next target level for the Japanese currency.
Against the pound, the yen bounced between 158.99 and 159.39 in early Asian deals on Thursday. The next downside and upside target levels for the pound-yen pair are seen at 158.5 and 160.0, respectively. At yesterday’s close, the pair was quoted at 159.32.
The yen weakened against the dollar after hitting a high of 96.39 at 8:10 pm ET Wednesday. Currently, the dollar-yen pair is trading near yesterday’s close of 96.67 with 97.0 seen as the next target level.
The Euro-zone May unemployment rate and PPI, U.K. construction PMI report for June are expected in the European session today.
At 7:45 am ET, the European Central Bank is scheduled to announce its interest rate decision. Analysts expect the ECB to keep rates steady at a record low of 1%.
Across the Atlantic, the U.S. Labor Department is due to release its customary weekly jobless claims report for the week ended June 27th at 8:30 am ET.
At the same time, the Labor Department is scheduled to release its monthly non-farm payroll report. Economists estimate that the U.S. economy lost 370,000 jobs in June and look for an unemployment rate of 9.6%.
The Commerce Department is due to release its report on factory goods orders for May at 10 am ET. Orders for manufactured goods are likely to have increased 0.2% in the month.
