Asia Session

Although trading to start the week was relatively subdued due to holidays in New Zealand and Hong Kong, it did have its moment of excitement. The Financial News, a paper linked to China's central bank printed a report from a Chinese researcher stating that China should increase its holdings of both Euros and yen. This report helped push the EUR/USD through fresh 14 month highs of 1.5063 on a stop driven move that energized a quiet Monday in Asia. The pair initially opened lower and fell to lows of 1.4980 before the news sent the pair rocketing higher.


The yen benefitted as well from the report, as USD/JPY slid from recent highs near 92.16 to just near 91.57 for the day. Yen crosses all dropped in favor of a stronger yen, despite the fact that Asian equities shrugged off Fridays losses on Wall Street and were clearly promoting a stronger risk appetite.

The AUD/USD was initially soft on worse than expected PPI data which came in at 0.1% as opposed to the forecast 0.3%, but the pair was pulled higher by the gains in the Euro. AUD/USD touched a 0.9275 high after a bottom of 0.9195. NZD/USD also rode the wave to 0.7565 before settling down near 0.7535.

Inevitably, the report from China was eventually denied as a statement was released stating that the views in the report were 'fully personal' views of the researcher. Thus, most pairs returned to humbler, yet elevated levels as the day wore down.