With the markets in full holiday mode, it was a lackluster Friday today in Asia as traders seemed to pull the plug early ahead of a long weekend due to today’s Thanksgiving Day holiday in the US. With that being said, the EUR/USD continued to drift lower and hit fresh seven week lows near 1.3300 on the continued fears over the European debt crisis. The poor showing in Wednesdays German bond, (Bund) auction seemed to send shivers through markets with the realization that even the mighty Germany was not exempt from the repercussions of debt problems in Greece, Portugal and Italy to name a few.
The general tone of the session was subdued, with the dollar gaining some strength across the board in thinned holiday trading. The AUD/USD found lows near .9680 after a start near 0.9740 while the GBP/USD drifted from 1.5495 to 1.5450 on the day. The USD/JPY saw significant dollar demand from exporters on the Tokyo fix, pushing the usually stagnant pair from 77.05 through 77.50 highs. The yen crosses saw similar moves with the weaker yen, but all in all, the moves were mostly insignificant.
With no significant data ahead until the weekend I would like to say it should be smooth sailing from here on out, but that’s a guarantee I can not make. Have a nice weekend….