Market Update - 15 April 2013

· USDMYR looks set to be stuck in the 3.0000-3.0500 range for today with not much major data expected.

· US Treasury released their Economics and Exchange Rate policies report and nothing drastic from the report this round. US Treasury skips labelling China (or Japan for the matter) as currency manipulator, butr repeats call for greater exchange rate transparency from China

· US Treasury also called for Japan to “refrain from competitive devaluation and targeting its exchange rate for competitive purposes”.

· Separately, draft documents also reveal G20 is mulling cutting public debt to below 90% of GDP over the long term, especially with the “lack of credible medium-term fiscal consolidation plans in the US and Japan”.

· US retails sales was weaker at -0.4% vs consensus of 0.0% expected. Consumer Confidence also fell at 72.3 vs 78.6.

· Gold fell sharply below 1500 to a 21 months lows, and right now the trend looks bleak. Possible Gold sales by Cyprus continued to weigh on sentiment, coupled with continued ETF redemptions and talks of a shift out of commodities into equities by various fund names. 


USDJPY fell to low of 97.60 by profit taking, as I shared last week, it was unlikely for USDJPY to just power past 100, retracement was expected and I reckon buy on dips will keep the pair well supported above 95.00.