European Forex Trading Preview

Traders continued to punish the greenback following yesterday¡¯s unprecedented rate cut by the FOMC to lower its key interest rate to a target range of 0 to 0.25%. The dollar plunged to a fresh 13-year low against the yen at 87.16 and a new two-month low versus the euro, losing nearly 5-big figures for its largest one-day decline to 1.4437.

With the Japanese currency trading at its highest level in over a decade, markets will remain vigilant against possibly BoJ intervention. Government officials have offered conflicting sentiments with Chief Cabinet Secretary Kawamura expressing his desire for the Bank to Japan to take appropriate action to stem the currency¡¯s sharp gains. However, Japan¡¯s Finance Minister Nakagawa said intervening in the currency market was not a consideration at this point, suggesting the movements had not been too sharp. With trading volume likely to wind down over the coming holidays, we would not rule out the possibility for the Bank of Japan to step in during thinly traded markets to quickly move the dollar/yen pair back toward the 100-level.