Markets Await Stress Test Results

EURUSD R 2: 1.3216 R 1: 1.3030 CURRENT: 1.2879 S 1: 1.2731 S 2: 1.2516

USDJPY R 2: 88.55 R 1: 87.60 CURRENT: 86.98 S 1: 86.26 S 2: 85.86

GBPUSD R 2: 1.5484 R 1: 1.5368 CURRENT: 1.5284 S 1: 1.5120 S 2: 1.4946

AUDUSD R 2: 0.9117 R 1: 0.9032 CURRENT: 0.8924 S 1: 0.8782 S 2: 0.8631

Market Brief

Asia was well in the green this morning, led by the Nikkei 225 which was up +2.28%. In a week which Asian equities have been particularly vulnerable, a combination of better manufacturing data from Europe, a strong performance for US equities last night, and fresh buying coming in following consecutively lower closings saw Asian stocks rally. Safe havens were experiencing weakness resulting from risk-on sentiments this morning and USDCHF was above 1.0450 levels .

The USDJPY rallied too, breaching 87 levels whilst the GBPJPY touched an intraday high of 133.35. The Aussie and Kiwi pairs maintained their gains from yesterday and were trading in a largely stable range at 0.8924 and 0.7247 respectively. Following a day in which saw the pairs appreciate 1.7% against the Dollar, they were propped up this morning by a weaker Dollar and stronger equity markets from down under. Once again, we are taking it session by session and can expect mixed market conditions in the build-up to the release of the European banks' stress test results, due out at 1800 GMT.