Obviously, the pressure will be on the downside of the currency until we get some degree of clarity on who is going to be a Chancellor and what form of government we are going to have in Germany.
What will probably happen is they will knuckle down and vote for reform. Things are getting better in Japan and the architect of that appears to be moving toward retaining power.
The expectation is that Koizumi will win by a reasonable majority, that reforms will go forward and the opposition to the Japan Post sale will be crushed.
We expect the Fed to raise rates to 4.75 percent in March. The market isn't fully pricing this in, so it suggests a risk the dollar will receive support in the short-term.
We expect the CBC to continue to tighten, albeit slowly, even after the Fed stops. We like the Taiwan story a lot.
We saw stops go out yesterday after the highs of the previous two runs were taken out.
The sell-off in Asia will probably continue for a few more days, maybe another week.
The Taiwan dollar is extremely undervalued. Once short-term political distractions have dissipated, people will refocus on what is a pretty positive story.
This is the first clear warning in a very long time by the U.S. that Japan should not cap the rise in the yen. The yen is the cheapest it has been for 20 years and will inevitably regain ground.
The yen is the cheapest it has been for 20 years and will inevitably regain ground.
A third positive number in a row heightens expectations for the BOJ to raise policy next week. That will underpin the yen.
It is our strong belief that the dollar rally is gradually coming to an end and that we will eventually see renewed dollar weakness in 2006.
The Chinese yuan isn't a reserve currency at all, let alone 'the' reserve currency. We're a very long way away.
Increasingly, it seems Asian countries are wanting to slow the pace of reserve accumulation, given how high they have gotten.
The focus in Singapore has always been on keeping competitiveness in the economy and the Singaporean authorities have been task-masters in doing exactly that.
The GDP deflator suggests the Bank of Japan doesn't have to do anything any time soon and this is negative for the yen. Previous expectations for an imminent tightening were clearly premature.
The dollar was pushed down against the yuan yesterday when the two senators arrived. This is yen supportive to some extent.
The comments by Tim Adams were a bombshell. This is the first clear warning in a very long time by the U.S. that Japan shouldn't cap the rise in the yen. The implicit assumption is the yen will indeed strengthen.