Asian Session – Yen rises on positive Tankan survey
December 16, 2013 7:41 am
The Japanese yen managed to claw back some of its recent losses, as the market appeared hesitant to push the currency towards its recent lows after Friday’s retreat.
The release of the Bank of Japan’s Tankan 4th quarter business confidence survey, showed sentiment rising to a 6-year high. Not only did big manufacturers’ and service providers’ sentiment improve but also the confidence for smaller companies reach multi-year highs.
Analysts were divided as to what the Tankan meant with respect to prospects for additional monetary stimulus from the Bank of Japan. Some said the data was strong enough to keep policy steady for the time being, whereas others believed it did not really affect chances for additional stimulus.
On the other hand, in China, the HSBC manufacturing PMI for December eased to 50.5 compared to 50.8 the previous month. This caused a retreat in the region’s stock markets, which in turn might have helped to boost the yen further.
The dollar lost a significant 0.45% against the yen to trade at 102.80. The euro also gave up ground against the yen, retreating by 0.28% to 141.39.
The euro was stronger against the US dollar however, rising by 0.20% and regaining a part of Friday’s losses to trade at 1.3755.
The Australian dollar remained not far from its 3-month low, retreating by 0.08% against the US dollar to trade at 0.8947.
Traders were bracing for an action-packed week ahead of them starting with today’s Eurozone flash PMIs during the European session and US productivity, industrial output and capacity utilization later during the day.
The Japanese yen managed to claw back some of its recent losses, as the market appeared hesitant to push the currency towards its recent lows after Friday’s retreat.
The release of the Bank of Japan’s Tankan 4th quarter business confidence survey, showed sentiment rising to a 6-year high. Not only did big manufacturers’ and service providers’ sentiment improve but also the confidence for smaller companies reach multi-year highs.
Analysts were divided as to what the Tankan meant with respect to prospects for additional monetary stimulus from the Bank of Japan. Some said the data was strong enough to keep policy steady for the time being, whereas others believed it did not really affect chances for additional stimulus.
On the other hand, in China, the HSBC manufacturing PMI for December eased to 50.5 compared to 50.8 the previous month. This caused a retreat in the region’s stock markets, which in turn might have helped to boost the yen further.
The dollar lost a significant 0.45% against the yen to trade at 102.80. The euro also gave up ground against the yen, retreating by 0.28% to 141.39.
The euro was stronger against the US dollar however, rising by 0.20% and regaining a part of Friday’s losses to trade at 1.3755.
The Australian dollar remained not far from its 3-month low, retreating by 0.08% against the US dollar to trade at 0.8947.
Traders were bracing for an action-packed week ahead of them starting with today’s Eurozone flash PMIs during the European session and US productivity, industrial output and capacity utilization later during the day.
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