Daily Market Review – Asian Session – Australian Dollar hits new 29 year peak as Yen continues to drop

Important: This page is part of archived content and may be outdated.

The Euro today has experienced a rather volatile Asian session, opening up at 1.4102 and progressed in the early stages to a peak of 1.4126, touching the 10-Day simple moving average at 1.4124, before retreating from this resistance level and dropping some 50+ pips to reach a session low of 1.4069. The recent movement of the Euro has produced a head and shoulder formation that can be clearly viewed on the 30 minute chart; should the EURUSD continue in this trend we can expect it to maybe drop as low as the current 20-Day moving average at around the 1.4029 levels.

The Sterling has followed a similar pattern to the Euro, gaining in the early part of the Asian session before dropping against the USD. The British pound in recent days has been trading within the ranges of 1.5937 – 1.6041 and appears to have encountered strong support around the 1.5980’s as it has failed to convincingly break this level – a level which it had previously failed to break on 2 occasions on the 16^th of March and 11^th of February over the past 3 months. The Sterling is currently trading around the 1.5995 levels after having encountered a drop of some 40+ pips from an earlier Asian session high of 1.6023.

The USD has extended its recent gains against the Japanese Yen, reaching a new 19 day high of 82.99 as it constantly gained throughout the Asian session. Resistance for the USDJPY pair is seen at the March 11^th high of 83.28. The current level of the USDJPY see’s the pair gaining over 7.5% in the past 2 weeks, following the all time low of 76.33 that was reached on the 16^th. The Japanese Yen is believed to have dropped against the Dollar following recent hawkish comment

The Australian Dollar rose to a new 29 year high in today’s Asian session, peaking at 1.0331 before edging back to 1.0268. The current level of the Aussie is at 1.0322 as it remains relatively close to its recent high, still showing little sign of dropping back down. In the past 2 weeks the AUDUSD has gained a little over 6 cents. Support for the pair is currently seen at the December 31^st high of 1.0257. Following a number of major events that have happened in the past couple of months, including the troubles in North African countries and the most recent earthquake that hit Japan, the market has appeared to have become immune to global bad news and has regained its risk appetite as we have seen in recent weeks, with the Aussie benefiting hugely due to its high interest rates.

Gold traded relatively steady in today’s first session around the $1417 level, oscillating by +/-$2.50 throughout the session. The early part of the session saw the precious metal strengthening; however investors appeared nervous as talk of a tighter monetary policy from a number of central banks saw its appeal being dented. The safe haven commodity is firm for now, trading close to yesterday’s levels as it remains relatively close to the very recent all time high of $1447.5 per ounce.