020 7898 0500The Japanese yen has continued with the strength it showed at the start of this week. We saw commodity markets wobble yesterday following China’s poor trade balance figures, triggering concerns about their outlook and financial system, and pushing the value of copper down to 2010-lows. As a result, there was an increase in demand for low-risk assets such as the Japanese yen, which climbed against all of its 16 main counterparts. Conversely, we saw the South African rand lose out, as the commodity-backed currency felt the impact of copper devaluation.
The New Zealand dollar gained strength in anticipation of the central bank’s interest rate announcement later today, which traders are forecasting will be an increase.
First thing this morning we saw the Central Bank of Thailand cut interest rate by 0.25% to 2% as was widely expected.
A quiet day otherwise on the data-front today meant that markets will be susceptible to other factors.
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