Safe haven currencies benefit from Chinese data and Crimean referendum

The Japanese yen was the standout performer elsewhere this week. A brace of data releases from China on Saturday and Wednesday painted a worrying picture for the growth outlook of the world’s second largest economy. Furthermore, the on-going developments surrounding the standoff between Russia and Ukraine caused nervousness in the market.

As a result, we saw risk-aversion dominate the market resulting in the traditionally safe-haven Japanese yen climbing by over 2.5% on sterling since the previous Thursday. We saw a similar pattern with the Swiss franc, which also benefitted from the risk averse market, although its gains weren’t quite as significant as those of the yen.

The Australian dollar gained significantly following employment figures released early yesterday morning. The figures showed that employers had added three times the amount of jobs that economists had forecast. As a result, the Australian currency climbed to a one-month high against sterling.

A quiet day on the data front today leaves markets particularly susceptible to other factors.

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