Early stop-loss hunting was the only notable activity in the Asian market Friday with much of the regional markets closed for holiday and with the European markets closed in the session ahead. USD-JPY pushed through stops at 100.58/60 in early Tokyo to trade to 100.72 highs and drift back as low as 100.22 on quick profit-taking. Similarly, the market went after EUR-USD stops under 1.3100 for a brief push to 1.3092 before a bounce back to 1.3133. The focus for the session was the relative weakness for the EUR compared to other currencies with EUR-GBP again testing the recent lows near 0.8960 and EUR-JPY holding a heavy tone as well. Commodity currencies such as AUD, NZD and CAD were all bid on risk appetite after the strong gains in U.S. stocks on Thursday. Gold and oil futures trading was closed for the holiday. Asian stocks were broadly higher though the Nikkei gains were very minor, only up 0.20% in the afternoon after the news of losses by SMFG, which weighed on other Japanese banking stocks. Currency moves are expected to be contained through Monday, due to the holidays.
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