USD

There is mixed behavior for the greenback today. The positive economic data lately has led to a return of risk appetite into the financial markets. The AUD/USD pair is higher right now by 0.5% at $1.0351. The dollar has fallen versus the Canadian dollar and British pound this morning. The economic data from the global economy today will be crucial in determining the strength of the U.S. dollar, so be very focused today.

EUR

The euro has fallen a lot versus its peers. This is ahead of the EU summit later. Traders will need to follow the news coming out of the summit, as it will be crucial in driving the European single currency today. The biggest losses have been versus the pound and the euro. This is largely due to traders being concerned about the state of the economy of the Eurozone.

JPY

It looked as if the yen would make very big gains today, but this was not meant to be. The JPY initially rose after comments by officials that the inflation rate will need to be curbed. The USD/JPY currency pair has surged this morning by 0.21% to 96.33 yen. Traders feel that there are further declines in the future for the Japanese currency. In addition, the risk appetite amongst traders today has resulted in the selling haven currencies such as the yen. This is why further declines are likely today.

Most Asian stocks experienced declines this morning, despite there being a surge in confidence after U.S. equities rose yesterday. The main reason why Asian equities fell was due to fears that Chinese policymakers will try to cool the property market. In addition, Hong Kong increased the mortgage rates.

The MSCI Asia pacific index is lower today by 0.3% at 476.94. Australia’s S&P/ASX 20 Index fell 1.2%. Taiwan’s Taiex Index slipped 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index increased 0.3%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index added 0.3%. New Zealand’s NZX 50 Index rose 0.9%. South Korea’s Kospi Index added 0.1%.

BHP Billiton fell 2.3% to A$35.09. Rio Tinto dived 2.3% to A$60.70.

It will be interesting to see if the declines for Asian stocks will have a negative impact on Asian stocks later today. A factor which will be crucial in determining the strength of stocks will be U.S. economic data results.

Crude Oil

There was a lot of bearishness for crude oil earlier on. However, the commodity has seemed to gain ground in the past hour of trading. It is up for the moment by 12 cents, as there is confidence slowly trickling into the markets. Traders are in the mood to take risks today.

This is following the important gains made by U.S. stocks during yesterday’s trading session. It is true that crude oil inventories did rise for yet another week. This did put downward pressure on crude initially.

However, this has not been enough to push the commodity lower now.

Traders foresee the commodity t make further advances due to the optimistic data that has been published from the U.S. economy recently.

GBP/USD

One of the strongest currencies today is the cable. Traders have decided to buy into the British currency after it has declined a lot in recent trading weeks. The GBP/USD is higher by 0.07% at $1.4934. There is a lot of confidence in the GBP, as there are a number of technical indicators backing the British currency. In addition, traders are willing to take a lot of risks today. The result has been a lot of upward pressure on the pound.