Talking Points:
- Japanese Yen soars as sentiment sours across financial markets
- Risk-off mood sinks Aussie Dollar after brief, post-RBA advance
- US Dollar may suffer as Yen extends gains amid risk aversion
The Japanese Yen outperformed in Asian trade as most regional stock exchanges suffered losses, offering support to the perennially anti-risk currency. The sentiment-linked Australian Dollar followed share prices downward erasing a brief pop following a status-quo RBA monetary policy announcement.
The New Zealand Dollar proved to be impressively resilient however. The currency traded higher after data from ANZ showed that prices for the island nation’s raw materials exports on global markets rose 3.2 percent in May, the most in six months.
Looking ahead, a quiet economic calendar in European and US trading hours is likely to keep sentiment trends at the forefront. European shares are following Asia’s negative lead and S&P 500 futures are pointing firmly lower, arguing for more of the same when Wall Street comes online.
On balance, this points to continued Yen gains. The US Dollar has managed to fend off lasting selling pressure for now but find itself on the defensive before long as traders ponder the impact of risk aversion on the Fed’s ability to press with rate hikes after next week’s all-but-certain increase.
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Asia Session
European Session
** All times listed in GMT. See the full DailyFX economic calendar here.
--- Written by Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist for DailyFX.com
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