The USD/JPY pair is getting some respite so far today after yesterday’s massive sell-off. Yesterday, Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor Kuroda’s statement sent the pair spiraling down when he dismissed any possibility of easing in the near future. Other factors came into play too to aggravate the pair’s situation, including dovish comments from FOMC Voter Kocherlakota who hinted at a slower QE tapering when he mentioned that the Fed is underperforming on both unemployment and inflation. Then there’s the drop in Nikkei Futures as well, and new tensions in Ukraine.
All these dragged the USD/JPY pair to yesterday’s low at 101.55 in between the London and New York sessions. It has made a slight recovery after that, however, and opened today’s Asian session at 101.95. It is currently trading at 101.89, with initial resistance seen at 102.47, followed by 102.73. Meanwhile, initial support is at 100.88, followed by 100.63.
As for the AUD/USD, the pair continued to rise in today’s Asian session. It finally broke through the 0.9300 barrier late in yesterday’s Asian session and only went up from there after several failed attempts at maintaining the level in the past few days. It is now threatening to break through the 0.9400 as well.
There are several reasons for the pair’s sharp rise today. First of these is Australia’s number of Home Loans in February, which rose by 2.3%, beating expectations of a 2.0% rise. In addition to that, Investment Lending for Homes was also up by 4.4% during the same period after contracting by 3.3% during the previous one. Meanwhile, Westpac’s Consumer Confidence and Consumer Confidence Index for April came out at 0.3% (previously -0.7%) and 99.7 (previously 99.5), respectively.
The AUD/USD pair is currently trading at 0.9376, with initial resistance seen at 0.9419, followed by 0.9442. Meanwhile, initial support is at 0.9311, followed by 0.9287.
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