Forexpros –
Forexpros – The U.S. dollar moved modestly lower against the Japanese yen in Asian trade Friday, as dealers on both sides of the Pacific await the outcome of the upcoming meeting of European finance officials to address the region’s debt crisis.
In mid-day Asian trade USD/JPY hit 76.74, the pair’s lowest since Thursday; the pair subsequently consolidated at 76.76, edging down 0.05%.
The pair was likely to find support at 76.10, the low of September 22, and resistance at 77.49, last Thursday’s high.
On Thursday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint statement from Frankfurt, where the two agreed to meet Saturday in Brussels a day before the scheduled Sunday summit of European leaders.
Sunday’s confab in Brussels has become the focus of investor hopes since officials from the Group of 20 last weekend set the day as a deadline for Europe to devise a concerted action to boost the USD603 billion European Financial Stability Facility rescue fund.
The French and German leaders announced that a “comprehensive and ambitious” response to the debt crisis would emerge this weekend with a second meeting to take place no later than next Wednesday.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. National Association of Realtors reported that sales of new homes fell less than expected in September to 4.1 million from 5.06 million the previous month. Economist forecasts had predicted a drop to 4.9 million for the period.
And a Thursday report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia showed that manufacturing activity in the state grew in October to a seasonally adjusted 8.7, from minus 17.5 the month before.
Analysts had expected the index, widely viewed as a harbinger of national trends, to fall by 9.5 last month and the data represented the biggest one month turnaround in 31 years.
Wall Street stocks strayed between gains and losses for most of the day before settling mixed; The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.32%, the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.21%, and the S&P 500 advanced 0.46%.
Meanwhile, the yen moved lower against both the euro and the British pound with
EUR/JPY higher by 0.02% to hit 105.83, and GBP/JPY up by 0.10% to hit 121.39.
The Bank of Japan was scheduled to next meet on an interest rate review October 27.
Forexpros
