Daily Forex News

Extending Asian session’s uptrend, the Canadian dollar jumped to new multi-day highs against the greenback and the yen during early European deals on Thursday as the crude oil prices rose to $70 a barrel today, adding to yesterday’s 7.6% gain after the Fed lowered interest rates by 50bps to 1%.

During early deals on Thursday, the US dollar extended its yesterday’s downtrend against most major currencies as the Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 1%, in an effort to keep the economy from slumping into a deep and prolonged recession. The dollar plunged to near a 3-week low against the franc, 8-day low against the pound, 6-day low against the kiwi and a 9-day low against the euro, the aussie and the loonie.

Extending yesterday’s downtrend, the US dollar declined to near a 3-week low against the Swiss franc in early Asian deals on Thursday. The dollar also slumped to new multi-day lows against the euro and the pound as the U.S. Federal Reserve slashed its benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point yesterday, lowering short-term borrowing costs in a further effort to keep the economy from slumping into a deep and prolonged recession.

The Taiwan dollar challenged yesterday’s 6-day high of 33.2370 against its US counterpart on Thursday morning in Asia. The Taiwan currency leveled off against the buck in the early Asian session and is currently trading at 33.25.

Wednesday, the US dollar dropped to new multi-day lows against the currencies of UK, Switzerland and Canada on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates by at least a half-percentage point to 1.00% today in yet another move to turn around the credit crisis that is threatening the United States with a deep and prolonged recession.

In early trading on Wednesday, the British pound jumped to new multi-day highs against the currencies of US, Europe and Switzerland. But the pound eased from a 5-day high against the yen.

Wednesday in Asia, the South Korean won trended up against the currencies of US and Japan as overseas investors snapped up shares and the benchmark stock index climbed for a third day. The won thus jumped to a 2-day high against the dollar and a 5-day high against the yen.

The Japanese yen that declined against its major counterparts in early Wednesday Asian trading reversed direction around 6:00 pm ET. The yen thus recovered from a 5-day low against the pound, 6-day low against the euro and a 1-week low against the dollar and the franc.

In early deals on Tuesday, the Japanese yen fell against its major counterparts as a rebound in Asian stocks revived investors’ risk appetite.

Another week of anxiety, and the question still hangs are we on the cusp of a severe global recession? The markets seem to think so: the US S&P500 share index -7%, and many other share indices in double digit declines; copper -22% and oil -12%; and currencies such as the AUD and ZAR -10% while […]