Wednesday in Asia, the yen rose to near a 2-week high against the U.S. dollar and it recouped early losses against other major currencies on risk aversion amid growing concerns about the political turmoil in Libya and surging crude oil prices.
Latest reports say that embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi rejected calls for his resignation in a defiant speech on state television. Gadhafi, who has been in power in Libya for over 40 years, has seen his stranglehold over the North African nation wane in the wake of massive protests that have overwhelmed the country over the last couple of days.
Most Asian stocks declined. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index is currently down by 87.94 points or 0.8% at 10,576.11.
In economic news, Japan posted a merchandise trade deficit of 471.4 billion yen in January, the Ministry of Finance said today. That came as a shock to analysts, who had been expecting a surplus of 49.3 billion yen following the downwardly revised surplus of 725.9 billion yen in December.
Meanwhile, an index measuring corporate service prices in Japan was down 1.1 percent on year in January, the Bank of Japan said, standing at 96.1. That was slightly better than forecasts for a 1.3 percent annual contraction. Prices were down 0.3 percent on month following a 0.2 percent decline in December.
The yen is currently trading near a 2-week high of 82.55 against the US dollar with 82.0 seen as the next upside target level. At yesterday’s close, the dollar-yen pair was quoted at 82.82.
The yen is now worth 113.10 against the euro, 88.10 against the franc and 133.57 against the pound, compared to early Asian session lows of 113.61, 88.44 and 134.16, respectively. The yen closed yesterday’s trading at 113.07 against the euro, 133.67 against the pound and 88.25 against the franc.
The yen slipped to 83.16 against the Aussie before bouncing back in early Wednesday Asian deals at 8:00 pm ET. As of now, the yen is trading near yesterday’s close of 82.75.
The yen that fell to 83.86 against the Canadian dollar at 8 pm ET rebounded thereafter. Currently, the loonie-yen pair is worth 83.50, compared to yesterday’s close of 83.60.
At present, the yen is worth 61.75 against the NZ dollar, compared to an early Asian session low of 62.27. The kiwi-yen pair closed yesterday’s trading at 61.85.
Looking ahead, France CPI and Swiss producer and import price index – both for January, Bank of England’s minutes for February meeting and the Eurozone industrial new orders for December are expected in the upcoming European session.
The U.S. existing home sales for January is due in the New York morning.
Hi, its pleasant post regarding media print, we all understand media is a wonderful source of facts.
Hey! This post could not be written any better! Reading through
this post reminds me of my previous room mate! He always kept talking about this.
I will forward this page to him. Pretty sure he will have a good read.
Many thanks for sharing!
I’m not that much of a online reader to be honest but your blogs really nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your website to come back down the road. All the best
Hi, after reading this remarkable paragraph i am also happy to share my experience here with mates.
Hey there! I just want to give you a big thumbs up for your excellent information you’ve got right here on this post. I am returning to your site for more soon.
It’s a pity you don’t have a donate button! I’d without a doubt donate to this brilliant blog! I guess for now i’ll settle for bookmarking and adding your RSS feed to my Google account. I look forward to new updates and will talk about this site with my Facebook group. Talk soon!
I can assure that your 16 years of age will dislike the country – for an adolescent woman that has
been bought up in a liberal country the rules there will be a
big shock to the system.
I haven’t checked in here for some time because I thought it was getting boring, but the last
few posts are great quality so I guess I’ll add
you back to my daily bloglist. You deserve it friend :
)
I need to to thank you for this great read!! I definitely loved every bit of it.
I’ve got you book-marked to check out new things you post?
Wonderful post however , I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this topic? I’d be very grateful if you could elaborate a little bit more. Bless you!