WELCOME
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
CURRENCY VIEW
Major Forex News
Yen Rises as Slowing China Growth Spurs Safety Bid; Euro Weakens
The yen rose for a third day versus the dollar after China’s growth slowed more in the first quarter than economists forecast, fueling demand for haven assets.
Japan’s currency advanced against all except one of its 16 major peers after the U.S. Treasury said it would press the nation to refrain from competitive devaluation. The New Zealand and Australian dollars tumbled as the Chinese data showed their biggest trading partner is losing momentum. The euro fell as Moody’s Investors Service said the risk Cyprus will exit from the currency bloc remains high. South Korea’s won rose as the U.S. suggested North Korea will be invited for nuclear talks. The yen rose 0.7 percent to 97.73 per dollar at 7:04 a.m. in New York after appreciating to 97.55, the strongest level since April 5. Japan’s currency gained 0.9 percent to 127.81 per euro after jumping 1.2 percent on April 12. The euro dropped 0.3 percent to $1.3077.
COMMODITIES VIEW
Gold Bulls Endure Bear Market.
The investors increased net-long positions by 19 percent to 56,084 futures and options in the week ended April 9, the first gain in three weeks, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission data show. That contrasts with a 7.9 percent decline in bullish wagers across 18 U.S.-traded raw materials, which fell to a five-week low of 431,581 contracts. Holdings in agriculture dropped to the lowest since September 2006. The turn in the gold cycle is quickening and investors should sell the metal, Goldman Sachs said in an April 10 recommendation that returned 5.4 percent in three days. Gold retreated as the Standard & Poor’s GSCI Index of 24 raw materials fell to a nine-month low, extending a slump that Citigroup Inc. said marks the “death bell” for the supercycle, or longer-than-average period of rising prices. Global equities advanced to the highest since June 2008 as U.S. stocks reached a record. Spot gold fell 6.2 percent to $1,483 an ounce last week, the biggest drop since December 2011. The S&P GSCI retreated 0.8 percent, reaching its lowest since July. The MSCI All-Country World Index of equities climbed 2.5 percent and the dollar slid 0.2 percent against a basket of six trading partners. Treasuries lost 0.2 percent, a Bank of America Corp. index shows. Gold lost as much as 6.6 percent to $1,385.55, the lowest since March 2011, and was at $1,408.17, heading for the biggest two-session slump since March 1983. Investor Jim Rogers, who predicted the start of the commodity rally in 1999, said gold was in need of a correction, and that he will start to buy it if it goes down enough. He didn’t say at what price he would start to buy. A European Commission debt assessment dated April 9 said Cyprus had committed to selling around 400 million euros ($524 million) of “excess” gold reserves. The Cypriot central bank said it hadn’t discussed such plans. Cyprus has 13.9 metric tons of reserves, ranking it 61st globally with an amount equal to about 2 percent of daily trade in the London market.
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