Forex Asia – Japan’s Bank Holiday causes a silent Asian trading session

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The Eurozone’s single currency that exhibited losses yesterday as part of the American Session was traded in a range today as part of the Asian Session. With the Japanese market that usually tends to be the biggest player of the Asian Session being closed as part of a Bank Holiday (Showa Day) no significant volatility or movement was developed and therefore the most EURUSD pair was traded in a sort of range behavior over the period of the session. The session opened at 1.4821, peaked at 1.4874 and currently traded at 1.4830. Important unemployment figures for the Eurozone are to be released later in the day that could really show whether or not the uptrend will continue.

The Japanese Yen against the Dollar was incredibly sluggish today which is evident by the minor 18 pip difference between the session’s high and low. Since the currency’s market is closed today due to a bank holiday it is no wonder this was observed. The BOJ is currently examining the economic downside risk caused by last month’s devastating earthquake after yesterday’s interest rates policy meeting where the rates were announced steady at 0.1%.

Just like all the other currencies mentioned above the GBPUSD was also illiquid, being traded on a small 35pip range. The Sterling that made significant gains during the last couple of days following its 0.5% GDP increase has started declining over the Dollar since yesterday’s Asian session end while over the last couple of hours some traces of an upward move are being developed. Housing prices by Nationwide are to be released today in UK that could show if the housing market is also following an economic improvement as well as the GDP and help the currency.

Unlike the other currency pairs the AUSUSD pair was slightly more volatile. Around midsession the Aussie dropped a near 50pips within half an hour showed some recovery and has been trading in a range since then around 1.0905. As part of the session Private Sector Credit figures were announced for the month of March in Australia which despite being hawkish did not appear to generate any volatility.

Gold, the precious metal that rose to USD1538.12 an ounce, during the US session yesterday was not able to reach that level today. Its correctional movement that started after that high scraped the 1537 level and over the last hours is moving downwards. The European Session will determine whether this failure to reach a new high could be associated with a trend reversal or it whether it was a minor part of an uptrend continuation.