Market News

Asia markets fluctuated on Wednesday, as the yen nudged higher against the dollar and oil prices retreated. Regional stocks spent much of the morning in positive territory after Wall Street posted its biggest one-day rise in two months.

The yen tumbled to a two-week low against the dollar on Monday after Japan's finance minister warned that Tokyo was ready to intervene in the currency market if needed.

The US Dollar struck a fresh 10-day peak versus the Japanese Yen on concerns that the Bank of Japan’s intervention in the Yen is imminent.

In a surprise cabinet reshuffle, Ali al Naimi has been replaced by Khalid al-Falih, current chairman of Saudi Aramco as Saudi Arabia's oil minister.

This week can be expected to be of a similar level of significance to the previous week, with Central Bank inputs due concerning only the British Pound and New Zealand Dollar.

Friday’s U.S. non-farm payroll numbers were disappointing, coming in at only 160,000, 40,000 short of forecasts and slower than the more recent 200,000 plus level.

The Reserve Bank of Australia cut its inflation forecast for 2016 Thursday, triggering a drop in the Aussie dollar.

For a third consecutive day, the Japanese Yen continued to weaken, however it is trading very near to an 18-month high. FX traders remain unconvinced that the Bank of Japan is on the verge of intervening in the Yen’s rise, despite recent rhetoric to the contrary.

Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, a close ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be stepping down soon according to government officials.

On Tuesday, the Pound Sterling had its largest single day’s decline in six weeks against the US Dollar; those losses are continuing to mount in Wednesday’s trading session.

China's central bank on Wednesday fixed the yuan currency nearly 0.60 per cent weaker against the US dollar, the biggest downward move since devaluing the unit in August last year.

At its monthly policy meeting Tuesday the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced it was cutting its cash rate a quarter point to an all-time low of 1.75 per cent in a move to stave off deflation after data last week showed quarterly deflation in the consumer price index and the weakest annual pace on record for core inflation.

The Japanese yen rallied to a fresh eighteen-month high on Tuesday with the US dollar trading last at 106.21 yen, down 0.2 percent so far. The greenback fell to as low as 106.05 yen at one point, its lowest level since October 2014.

Gold broke the $1300 barrier this afternoon for the first time in 15 months. After soaring overnight to trade at $1298, the commodity proved its shine by unexpectedly moving past the $1300 key level.

Though the Dollar has recovered to some extent, earlier in today’s trading session, the Japanese Yen struck a new 18-month peak, adding to last week’s gain.