The Japanese Yen is in focus today as Japanese currency officials threaten intervention to defend it against a market that wants to sell it.
- The Japanese Yen continued to depreciate as markets opened this week in Tokyo, with the benchmark USD/JPY currency pair rising to reach a level just a few pips short of the big round number at ¥160. This pair ended last week at a multi-decade high. Japanese currency official Kanda stated that the Bank of Japan is ready 24 hours per day to intervene against excessive FX movements, and that such movements are bad for the Japanese economy. However, this only pushed the price down by 25 pips or so and seems to have had little effect beyond defending the ¥160. Trend traders will still want to be long of this currency pair, although intervention by the Bank could send the price sharply lower in a matter of minutes.
- Opinion polls in France continue to show that the far-right will be the best performing bloc, and that it may even win a majority. The National Rally party is now polling at 36%. France has a runoff voting system, not proportional representation. The strong performance by the far-right will be likely to weigh on the Euro.
- The Governor of the Bank of Canada will be giving a minor speech today ahead of Canadian CPI data which will be released tomorrow.
- It is likely to be a relatively quiet day in the markets today, as it is a Monday with no major news due.
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