ACM：5月20日国际金融市场分析

Asian Session - Very Quiet
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.