Currency Market Updates & USDJPY Chart analysis

US Policy: Aggressive Spending

Brokers trading the dollar helped it climb on Wednesday to a new six week high against the Yen an a new 2 ½ week high against the Euro as US President Obama announced a new 80 Billion Dollar mortgage bailout bill. The new bill is expected to help close to 9 million families either restructure or refinance their mortgages in order to avoid foreclosure.

At 5PM GMT, the Dollar was up 1 ¼% to the Yen at 93.56 and ½ of a percent versus the Euro to 1.2523 after hitting 1.2557 – its lowest level since early December. The US is continuing its aggressive spending policy to shore up its economic situation, a tactic that might prove detrimental to the valuation of the Dollar down the road. For now, those Investing and trading the greenback see the US doing something and is banking on the possibility that it will work to help stave off a worsened situation.

GBP: Bank of England Might Consider a Further Interest Rate Cut in March

Forex traders took the Sterling down marginally against the Euro and Dollar as the Bank of England released minutes of this past month’s interest rate meetings. The record showed that the BOE members voted unanimously for the policy of “quantitive easing” by purchasing other securities and Gilts. The fear was that based on the minutes and the unanimity of the vote, the Bank of England might consider a further interest rate cut in March.

At 5:15 GMT, the Sterling was off .33 of a percent to the USD at 1.4189 and 1/10^th of a percent to the Euro at .8824.

Chart Analysis: More USD/JPY – this time a 5 month look

As we said yesterday, the deviation of Dollar/Yen with respect to its historical patterns in terms of its connection with the risk appetite of Forex traders is a problem that could mean additional weakness for the Japanese currency. Its break above 92.40 is significant technically. This is now the new support level and the JPY/USD is setting its sights on the moving average for the past 100 days, somewhere near 94.00 as well as the 2009 high up at 94.62.