AUDUSD: The Australian dollar climbed to its highest levels in three weeks Thursday on news of strong employment growth in September which dashed talk of a cut in interest rates in November.
The economy churned out 20,400 more jobs in September, more than twice that expected by economists, with the unemployment rate falling to 5.2% from 5.3% in August, according to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Economists said the bounce back in employment showed there is more resilience in the economy than some had thought, giving the Reserve Bank of Australia more time to consider whether to cut rates. But longer-term trends in employment remain flat. In the 9-months to January, the economy added just 41,000 jobs, a stark contrast to the massive 283,000 jobs added over the same period in 2010.
We expect a range for today in AUDUSD rate of 1.0150 to 1.0210 (At 0617 GMT, the Australian dollar was at US$1.0198 up from US$0.9935 late Wednesday after briefly touching a day’s high of US$1.0230. Yesterday, we short the trade at 1.0180, the pair drop low to 1.0110.)
We now attempt to Re-Short at 1.0090
Stop loss at 1.0210
Target at 1.0150, 1.0110 and 1.0060
EURUSD: The head of French bank Societe Generale SA (SCGLY) expressed confidence Thursday it won’t need a mooted injection of public funds into banks weakened by exposure to euro-zone debt.
While The European Central Bank has done all it could to support the countries of the euro zone rocked by the sovereign-credit crisis and won’t embark on measures that would free the region’s governments of their responsibilities to put their fiscal house in order, ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet said.
The ECB has spent EUR160 billion ($220.57 billion) on buying euro-zone government bonds to lower sovereign-borrowing costs. The ECB has bought bonds of Greece, Italy and Spain, according to bond traders.
But the ECB won’t act as a lender of last resort to governments as the euro zone’s rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, should act as a firewall in the future, the FT quoted Trichet as saying.
We expect a range for today in EURUSD rate of 1.3700 to 1.3810 (The pair currently testing it resistance at 1.3800. If the pair fail to break through 1.3800, it will likely to head toward 1.3625 then 1.3570. We prefer to stay out of the pair today)
USDJPY: The U.S. Federal Reserve’s balance sheet hardly budged in the latest week, with its holdings of Treasury securities declining slightly.
The Fed’s asset holdings in the week ended Oct. 12 stood at $2.864 trillion, up only slightly from the $2.863 trillion reported a week earlier, the central bank said in a weekly report Thursday.
Holdings of U.S. Treasury securities fell, to $1.669 trillion from $1.672 trillion the week before. Its holdings of mortgage-backed securities and federal agency debt securities were unchanged.
The Fed’s portfolio has more than doubled since the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 as the central bank bought mortgage and government bonds to keep interest rates very low and stimulate the economy.
We expect a range for today in USDJPY rate of 76.40 to 77.10 (We have been successfully profit many trades on USDJPY in the past few months.)
Limit Buy order for USDJPY at 76.40-60 ranges
Stop loss at 75.60
Target at 76.90, 77.20 and 77.60
