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RBA, The Reserve Bank of Australia, decided on Tuesday to keep the interest rates unchanged for the third month in a row. We continue to see strong numbers for Australian employment and growth, and expect AUD to continue being strong against the USD with many carry traders moving to the pair (USD/AUD).

Strong growth among Australia’s trading partners

Economic data for the June quarter indicate strong growth, around 6 %, for Australia’s major trading partners. China, Japan and Korea had a stronger growth than expected, while the US economy grows less than expected.

Economic conditions in Australia

First, the Australian labour market has continued to show more jobs, while employment increased by over 46 000 jobs in June, growing 3.25 % since (more…)

Norges Bank decided today to keep the key interest rate unchanged at 2 %, as expected by Bloomberg forecasts.

Governor Svein Gjedrem explain why:
“Recent developments in the Norwegian economy have been broadly in line with expectations. Activity is rising moderately. Inflation has slowed and is now below 2 per cent”.

Better global growth

Norges Bank find the global economic growth to be slightly stronger than expected. The outlook for Europe is now a bit better, while the growth of the US economy is more uncertain.

OnlineForex.net find it likely that Norway keep main interest rates unchanged at 2 % for another few months.

After reaching 6 month high last week, pound sterling is now falling to it’s lowest lever in more than a week. Reason: Data signals Britain is not recovering as quick as expected.

Housing market slows down

The first decline in property prices appeared in July, showing a slower sales growth then previous months. Sterling fell to $1.5740 in London afternoon trading hours.

Analysts such as John Hydeskov, Danske Bank, believe Sterling is overbought and should have a correction. He suggest buying Norwegian krone instead..

Vladimir Putin seek to cut the percentage of foreign currency loans more then 50 %. He imposed new tax breaks with reductions for local loans compared to foreign loans.

Russian Debt levels

Russian companies have $294 billion of international and 12.8 trillion rubles ($410.8 billion) of local loans, according to Bank of Russia.

Lower inflation and borrowing costs

The interest rate has been cut 14 times in Russia the last year, to 7.75 % in July. At the same time, inflation gone down drastically from over 10 % to 5.8 % in June. (more…)

Nationalbanken, Denmark’s centralbank, released info about their currency reserve yesterday. And it’s clear that there have not been much action by the Danish centralbank.

It apprears the currency reserve descreased 2.2 million DKK to 438.4 million DKK. The new balance is a result of sold Danish currency for 1 million DKK and a foreign loan for 1.2 million DKK.

There was no interventions by the Nationalbank in June.

Just in time to Singapore Youth Olympics (14-26 August, 2010), Singapore launches Commemorative Coins.

An alternative to Singapore dollar? Perhaps not, but below you find some of the most colorful coins we seem in a long time.

• The $10 gold proof-like coin will come in 1/4 oz of 999.9 gold. Mintage of 5000 coins.
• The $5 silver proof-like coin will come in 1 oz of 999 fine silver with hologram effect. Mintage of 10 000 pieces.
• $2 Bi-Metal brilliant uncirculated condition, with a mintage of 30 000 coins.

Grab one now – there is only a limited edition of the Singapore Youth Olympic Coins.

The British pound also experienced increased resistance on Monday after the first quarter of UK economic data was worse than previously expected. There are many indications now that the recession been worse than expected and economic growth lower then earlier estimated.

UK inflation way over target level

The country’s inflation in recent months is now 3.7%, significantly above the Bank of Englands target level of 2%. Britain could be forced to raise interest rates relatively soon, as MPC member Andrew Sentance already voted for. But Mr. Archer at the Bank of England believes inflation is on a downward trend and believe rates will be kept at 0.5% throughout 2010 and well into in 2011. How credible is the new government and how well will they keep Britain’s a currency? If the BOE will not to curb inflation in the near future you can expect the British pound to decrease significantly.

When do you think Britain will raise interest rates?

The Canadian Dollar is advancing against it’s major trading partners, in particular USD.

For the first time since April (2010), CAD is heading towards 1.0 in exchange rate with the USD. Rising commodity prices and any unexpected rise in unemployment or inflation can easily make the Canadian Dollar stronger then the American dollar.

So, when Do you think the Canadian dollar will be stronger then the American counterpart, if ever?

Norges Bank made an official statement regarding fx purchases in July. They promised to not purchase any foreign currency in the current month.

They are otherwise one of the usual suspect for large transactions in foreign currency, especially when considerable amounts of petroleum are sold from Norway. The monthly allocations are determined by The Ministry of Finance every month.

The Norwegian Krone has strengthen from 9.15 to 8 for one Euro the latest year. Many currency analysts expect the NOK to rise even further.

Asian shares are rising and the euro seems to be about to turn upward after China’s central bank, The People’s Bank of China (PBoC), announces they will accept an increasing flexibility in exchange rates. Read more about the new Chinease currency policy below.

Gradual upgrade of Yuan

China’s central bank announced there will be a gradual easening of the local currency, Yuan. This is something many investors, Americans in particular, been waiting for a long time. Risk Appetite seemed rapidly increasing, and several stock (more…)

According to a recent report by London Foreign Exchange Joint Standing Committee, 62 % of the daily forex spot transactions are done either with electronic forex brokerages (41 %) such as Reuters, or by electronic forex trading (21 %) with brokers such as ForexYard or AvaFx. The most popular currency pairs to trade (more…)

eSignal just launched a new service for online forex traders called ‘OnDemand Forex‘.

Why use eSignal?

• Up to 12 years of minute interval forex data and 19 years of daily, weekly and monthly data.
• Optimal for technical analysts: Intuitive charting with unlimited options for technical analysis.
• Advanced fx back testing options, supporting all major and exotic currencies.

Several forex brokers are participating, such as Barclays London, FXCM and (more…)

Forex broker ODL Markets today announced they have been bought up by FXCM.

Why did FXCM buy ODL Markets?

The main reasons for the acquisition seems to be the facts that ODL Markets have a very good reputation and huge client base in UK and Europe. FXCM are trying to increase market shares in this region.

How will this effect ODL Markets customers?

All clients of ODL Markets will continue to trade under the same platform as they signed up. But we belive FXCM will (more…)

After the IMF, EU and the ECB put a 750 billion package to save the Euro and supporting Greece, the interventions from ECB has become inevitable. The euro’s not able to rise and the pressure is huge right now that the currency will continue to fall.

Lets see how big the pressure will be and whether the euro can continue to remain at similar levels, or if considerable (more…)

After a few days of discussions, many observers believe Tories and Liberal Democrats are forming a coalition government in United Kingdom. Currency analysts are now relieved that Gordon Brown seems to step down as Labours leader from September this year.

The new government are likely to cut borrowing sooner then a Labour government would and in general, it should do well for the economy and the british currency. Forex analysts already predict a hung parliment between conservatives and liberal democrats and they seem to like it – pound sterling rose by almost 1 % today. Interest rates (more…)

A stronger demand then previous t-bill auctions, made the euro gain slightly against the main trading partners on Tuesday.

Government t-bill auction received $780 million euros

Today’s auction was attracting double as much capital as the last time. The treasure bills sold had a lenght of 26 weeks at a yield of 4.55 %. Greece also offered t-bills with a lenght of 52 weeks, with a yield of 4.85 %.

Euro rise against Dollar & Sterling Pound

It seems like euro forex traders were happy about the successful t-bill auction. During the afternoon, the Euro have risen considerable against several other currencies.
Against the Dollar (EUR/USD) from 1.3626 to 1.3573, and against the Pound Sterling (EUR/GBP) from 0.8808 to 0.8839.

euro - us dollar, 13th of April

Intraday graph, Euro against US Dollar above. (See more dollar graphs here)

euro - sterling, 13th of April

Intraday graph, Euro against Pound Sterling above. (See more Euro graphs here)

Finally, the Euro against the Swiss Franc (EUR/CHF) went from 1.4390 to 1.4334.

euro - franc, 13th of April

Intraday graph, Euro against Swiss Franc above.

Or why not check our some more Euro graphs.

Where do you think the Euro is heading in the coming weeks?

The pound sterling has been declining during most of this year, but maybe we are about to see a turning point now?

As you can see in the GBP minute graph, the Pound Sterling have been increasing against US Dollar before Easter holidays starts.

In the longer forex charts for GBP/USD, it looks like the GBP (more…)

Norges bank left the interest rates on hold at 1,75 % – just as expected. Their outlook for Norways economy was more negative then earlier expressed. As a result, the norwegian krona have declined against the major trading partners and currencies.

Why did Norway keep interest rates at 1.75 %

One of the main reasons for keeping the rate at current levels was scaled back inflation expectations, while a slower recovery in Europe was another. Recent Norwegian growth and unemployment rates have also been slightly lower then expected.

Forecast for Norwegian krona?

The krona (more…)

Today we cover two interesting currencies which seen increased volume in the last 6 months – Australian dollar against the U.S. Dollar. Here is a brief currency forecast from a technical analyst point of view.

AUD/USD – Short-term

Over the next 48 hours, make sure to keep track of the following resistance and support levels:
-Resistance to AUD/USD: 0.9190-06, 0.9228, 0.9276-90 and 0.9404
-Support for AUD/USD: 0.9136, 0.9118, 0.9050-75 and 0.8997

Although there is support for the currency pair around 0.9118, the possibility for a break through the resistance at 0.9228 remains. In the short term, most of the leading forex analysts believe in a bullish move, ie. Australian to U.S. dollars strengthened against the USD.

AUD / USD – medium term

We have seen a (more…)

Japanese currency are becoming more interesting for carry traders, while forex experts estimate a set-back over the next months.

Yen as a carry trade

During much of the beginning of the century, yen was the main carry trade currency among international forex investors and traders. This mean it was sold by investors because its yield was so negligible, and the proceeds were invested in higher yielding currencies, such as Australian dollar (AUD) or Sterling (£). However, in the middle of the financial crisis, the yen was displaced by the US dollar, in the light of the slashed American interest rates.

Shift in lending rates

It’s now cheaper to borrow money in Yen then (more…)