Yen Takes The Lead On Hurricane Concerns, Eyes To Focus On BOJ Meeting And NFP

Yen Takes The Lead On Hurricane Concerns, Eyes To Focus On BOJ Meeting And NFP

The Japanese yen advanced against major currencies on Monday trading amid concerns as hurricane Sandy prepares to attack U.S. East Coast on Monday night, where eyes to focus on BOJ meeting and U.S. NFP report.

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced that U.S. equity trading on all markets will be canceled on Monday to secure workers as the high threat posed by the hurricane will require workers to travel, where the shut down may be extended through October 30.

Today, Japan's retail sales for September advanced 0.4% from a year earlier, relative to a revised of 1.7% advance in August and median estimates of 1.0% rise, adding to expectation of seeing more stimuli from the BOJ when they meet tomorrow.

Further monetary easing by the BOJ may push the yen down and give the lead to the dollar as another favorite safe haven before the release of the infamous U.S. jobs report on Friday.

The USD/JPY pair resumed its drop for a second day to continue its fall since touching a high of 80.37 on Friday yet it found support around 79.55, which represents SMA 200 level, while it is currently trading around that level.

The day's high was hit at 79.74 and the low was seen at 79.53, where the trading range for today is among key support at 78.80 and key resistance now at 80.50.

Moving to the dollar, it also showed advance against major currencies after a robust 2% annualized 3q GDP growth for the U.S. economy released on Friday, eyes will track the awaited non-farm payrolls report later in the week which will detect the health of the U.S. labor market after the improvement seen last month as the Fed targets further drop in unemployment rate.

The dollar index, which tracks the dollar movements versus a basket of major currencies, climbed to a high of 80.26, as a weekly closing above 79.60 levels, which represents SMA 200 level on the weekly charts, helped the dollar to begin the week with a rise.

Against the euro, the dollar is showing an advance on the daily charts as the EUR/USD pair is currently trading lower around 1.2904, after falling from a high of 1.2942 to touch a low of 1.2886.

Still there are worries from Spain which did not decide on its potential bailout, where today Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Spanish counterpart will meet in Madrid to discuss Europe’s new bailout strategy amid efforts to resolve the three-year-old debt crisis.

On the other hand, eyes will be on a report by the troika that assesses the progress made by the Greek government in meeting targets set by the troika to become eligible to receiving the next installment worth 31.45 billion euros before facing the ghost of default by November 16.

The trading range for today is among key support at 1.2750 and key resistance at 1.3080.

As for the sterling against the green currency, it resumed its decline for a second day to trade around 1.6060, where it is expected to find support at that level, referring it fell from a peak of 1.6142 touched last week after the release of upbeat third quarter GDP figures for the British economy, where today's data which showed improvement in mortgage approvals in September could not lift the cable.

The trading range for today is among key support at 1.5820 and key resistance at 1.6200.