Daily Forex Snapshots

Asian Session - Very Quiet

May 20, 2008 12:22 PM CEST

G10 Advancers and Decliners vs USD

	CHF	1.16
	SEK	0.82
	GBP	0.79
	DKK	0.78
	EUR	0.76
	AUD	0.69
	NOK	0.67
	JPY	0.59
	NZD	0.33
	CAD	-0.01

Global Indexes

Current Level

% Change

Nikkei 225 Index	14,160.09	- 0.76
Hang Seng Index	25,169.46	- 2.22
Shanghai Index	3,443.16	- 4.48
FTSE 100 Index	6,301.80	- 1.17
CAC 40 Index	5,080.77	- 1.19
SMI Index	7,659.22	- 1.53
DJIA futures	12,996.00	- 0.37

World Markets

Current Level

% Change

Gold	905.85	+ 0.07
Silver	17.04	+ 0.53
VIX	17.01	+ 3.27
Crude wti	127.08	+ 0.02
USD Index	72.54	- 0.67

Todays Calender

Estimates

Country / GMT

ZEW Economic Sentiment Index (May)	-37.0	-40.7	GE / 10.00
Producer Price Index (Apr)	0.4%(+6.7%	1.1%(+6.9%	US / 13.30
Core Producer Price Index (Apr)	0.2%(+2.9%	0.2%(+2.7%	US / 13.30
Int'l Securities Transactions (Mar)	c$2.200	c$3.800	CA / 13.30
Wholesales Sales (Mar) m/m	0.3%	-1.8%	CA / 13.30

Currency Tech

AUDUSD
R 3: 0.9826
R 2: 0.9723
R 1: 0.9618
CURRENT: 0.9592
S 1: 0.9511
S 2: 0.9392
S 3: 0.9291

EURJPY
R 3: 163.10
R 2: 162.96
R 1: 162.54
CURRENT: 162.40
S 1: 161.27
S 2: 160.79
S 3: 160.14

USDSGD
R 3: 1.3887
R 2: 1.3850
R 1: 1.3774
CURRENT: 1.3669
S 1: 1.3633
S 2: 1.3571
S 3: 1.3554

Market Brief

USD was a little weaker from the closes seen in N.Y. on Monday as Asia suffered from another very quiet session. Concerns continue to worry investors that the U.S. economy is still struggling to show signs of recovery.

The market is awaiting any data that will confirm that the U.S. economy is starting to be restored to health following the slashing of interest rates by the Federal Reserve over the previous months. Today investors will be wary of taking any positions in front of the important German ZEW sentiment report and inflation data from around the globe.

EUR rose to 1.5543 from 1.5505 as expectations for the ZEW is seen as improving on the previous month with greater confidence returning to the German business environment. Expect the business confidence index to rise to 102.7 in May. Investors' confidence index is expected to rise also to -37.5 respectively.

However, USD dipped to 103.94 from 104.47 against the Yen after the Bank of Japan left rates on hold at 0.5% which was widely expected. The Nikkei was down about 0.7% in later afternoon trading.

GBP bounced to 1.9546 from 1.9482 and also found some strength against the Euro as it reached .7947 from .7968 earlier in the session. This was despite George Soros, the man who broke the Pound, saying that the U.K. economy was in the worse possible position of any leading economic country and that the issues facing the U.K. could be greater than those already seen in the States. Soros believes that the huge spiral in housing prices and the fact that the U.K. economy is so dependant on financial services industry will hit Britain very hard.

AUD hit a new 24-year high against its U.S. counterpart reaching .9592 as it spiked up from .9519 earlier. The Australian central bank released the minutes from their last meeting and they showed that the RBA had actively considered raising interest rates once again as inflation was uncomfortably high. Continuing higher oil and gold prices are fuelling the Australian inflation rate. It seems also that carry trades are back in the forefront as risk appetite has again gripped the markets. The ever continuing rise of the Australian dollar is being fueled by a greater demand for coal and iron ore (especially from China) both of which are abundantly furnished by the Australia

Oil was steady around $127 barrel while gold stood at $906 ounce.

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