ASIA SESSION: More Jobs Boost Aussie...

The Australian dollar took center stage today in Asia making some respectable moves in an otherwise quite session. The Euro as well as most of the risk currencies were still at elevated levels from yesterdays voracious risk appetite due to more seemingly baseless promises to construct a concise plan to fix EU debt problems from Euro Zone talking heads. The nonsensical dismissal of the troubles in the Euro Zone put the EUR/USD over 1.3830 in late New York trading, and it remained just under the 1.3800 big figure for the better part of the Asian trade day. While most majors were content to remain just off those highs in range trading, the Australian dollar had top tier employment data on the schedule that promised to add volatility to the currency.

The employment change data down under showed that the nation added 20,400 jobs, better than the forecasted addition of 10,100 jobs. As well, the unemployment rate sank from 5.3% to 5.2%, adding a touch of optimism to the Aussie currency. The AUD/USD shot from 1.0150 to over 1.0230 in response to the positive data, and the pair remained just under 1.0200 until a late day jump back near earlier highs. AUD/NZD blasted from 1.2760 through 1.2850 and AUD/JPY saw highs just shy of 79.00 on a 70 pip move higher. Later in the session, Chinese trade balance disappointed at 14.5B versus an expected 17.1B and took a bit of wind out of the risk sales.

Looking over at Japan, we saw the yen make some soft gains on Japanese exporter buying that took the EUR/JPY to 106.10 and the GBP/JPY to 121.10. USD/JPY again remained calm, today within a 77.00 and 77.30 range. Rumors persisted in the marketplace that the Japanese MOF was contemplating a currency peg in the USD/JPY that would be similar to the recent SNB peg of the EUR/CHF to the Euro, but no basis for those rumors could be found.

After US trade balance and unemployment claim data in the US later in the day, Asia will return on Friday with important and potentially volatile data due with Chinese PPI and CPI.