Currency Alerts
11/4/2009 11:22 PM ET
(RTTNews) -
During early Asian deals on Thursday, the US dollar and the Japanese yen edged higher against their major counterparts as a fall in most Asian stock prices boosted demand for currencies perceived as safe havens.
The dollar and the yen are viewed as safe-haven currencies and both currencies gain, when investors turn risk averse and fall when risk appetite improves.
Asian stock markets are mostly down in the red today with investors treading cautiously on concerns over the pace of a global economic recovery. The start was fairly decent in most markets in the region, but stocks failed to gather enough support to sustain at higher levels. Lack of positive surprises from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which left key rates unchanged at historic levels and caution ahead of rate decisions by Bank of England and the European central bank appear to be holding the investors away on the sidelines.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down with a loss of 113.63 points, or 1.15%, at 9,730.68 at the end of the morning session. While, South Korea's Kospi is currently trading at 1,559, down 20.9 points, or 1.32%, from its previous close.
Elsewhere, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 is currently trading at 4,507, down 33.1 points, or 0.7%, from its previous close.
Among other markets in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong, New Zealand and Singapore are trading notably lower. Shanghai, Indonesia and Taiwan are down with modest losses. Markets in the region had closed moderately higher yesterday.
The Federal Reserve once again left interest rates at essentially zero percent yesterday, despite what it described as a "pick up" in economic activity.
The Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-setting arm of the Fed, said it was leaving its target for the federal funds rate at a range from zero to a quarter percent.
The central bank also repeated its assessment that "exceptionally" low rates will continue for an "extended period." The vote for the rate decision was unanimous.
Going into the announcement, the Fed was expected to leave rates alone, though there was some expectation that the central bank would start to pave the way for an eventual rate hike down the road.
Against the European currency, the US dollar edged higher during early deals on Thursday. At 8:35 pm ET, the dollar reached a high of 1.4830 against the euro, compared to 1.4863 hit late New York Wednesday. The next upside target level for the US currency is seen around 1.468.
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