Daily Market Review – Asian Session – Hawkish Fed comments help spur USD

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The Euro traded very steadily in today’s Asian session against the Dollar around the 1.4163 levels, slightly lower than the session open of 1.4172 as it took a pause from a recent decline seen in yesterday’s latter sessions. Comments from a Senior Federal Reserve official, which were recorded in the Wall Street Journal, said that Fed President Narayana Kocherlakota backed the idea of an interest rate hike in the US, more over saying that the rates should be increased by 75 basis points by the end of the year, should the economic growth and core inflation increase as is anticipated. The Euro still remained relatively elevated though as anticipation of an interest rate hike this month kept investors optimistic about the Euro. Support for the Euro is seen at 1.4146, the March 30^th and 29^th peaks.

The Sterling also remained firm against the Dollar in today’s Asian session after having dropped by over 100 pips in yesterday’s US session following Hawkish comments by President Narayana Kocherlakota. The Sterling traded for most of the Asian session around 1.6034 oscillating by +/-15 pips throughout the session. Strong support for the GBPUSD currency pair is seen around the 1.5904, where the pair formed a double bottom a few days ago, when viewed from the hourly chart, and began its upward trend.

The Japanese Yen continued to weaken today, dropping against the Dollar and a basket of Majors as the G7 intervention with the aim of weakening the Japanese Yen appears to be achieving its aim. The USDJPY rose throughout the Asian session by over 55 pips, comfortably breaking past previous resistance levels at 83.26 and 83.50, to reach a new one and a half month high of 83.73. The USD also benefitted from recent hawkish comments made with regards to increasing its present interest rates by 75 basis points, which has helped boost the USDJPY. Resistance for the currency pair is seen at February 16^th’s high of 83.97, with more resistance seen at 84.49 – the December 15^th high.

The Australian Dollar was also trading steady after having dropped by more than 50 pips following yesterday’s US session but found support on the 55-Hourly moving average at 1.0317. The latter part of the Asian session saw a boost in the Australian Dollar as it resumed its recently seen upward trend that has seen it gain over 6.5 cents in the space of 2 weeks. The AUD rose against the Dollar to surpass its Asian session open of 1.0342 and reach a peak of 1.0354.

Gold dipped a little in today’s Asian session, dropping from an open of $1434 per ounce to a low of $1429.6. The drop of the commodity is attributed to caution taken by investors prior to the US Non-Farm Payroll data to be released later in the day, along with the US unemployment rate. The precious metal is currently trading around the $1433 levels.