Technicals

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The Dollar rose against a basket of currencies on Monday after a surprise jump in US existing home sales gave optimism over the economic outlook. Stock exchange has been boosted by risk appetite as JPMorgan proposed a fivefold increase offer for Bear Stearns.

Sales of existing US home sales rose in February for the first time since July, data showed.

Yesterday, UsdJpy raced to a session peak of 100.90, well off a nearly 13-year low of 95.74 from 17th March. It last traded at 100.75, up 1.17%. EurJpy surged 1.21% to 155.53.

Dollar's rise against the Japanese currency was largely driven by news that JP Morgan had upped its offer for Bear Stearns to $10 per share from $2 previously. This boosted US equities and investors' appetite for riskier trades.

At the same time, the New York Federal Reserve said it would provide $29 billion in term financing to facilitate JP Morgan's acquisition of Bear Stearns and will form a privately managed company to oversee assets pledged as collateral. But traders said there were still concerns that the deal might not close and introduce some level of uncertainty yet again in the market. Those worries helped the Euro recoup some losses against the Dollar.

EurUsd was flat at 1.5437 after slipping to a session trough of 1.5341 and still off a record high of 1.5904 touched last week. Traders said there was also interest to buy the European single currency below 1.5400, limiting its losses. It was an illiquid market as most financial markets were shut for the Easter holidays on Monday and will reopen on Tuesday.

UsdChf jumped 0.91% to 1.0187, retracing from intraday 1.0250 high.