Major FX pairs were stuck within narrow trading ranges in a holiday-thinned Christmas Eve session in Asia Monday as the U.S. fiscal cliff situation remained in limbo. On Friday, worries escalated after U.S. House Speaker John Boehner canceled a House vote on his so-called “Plan B” to avert much of the fiscal cliff because he was unable to pass the bill in the House. Over the weekend, there was little progress seen, while players waited for the House to resume talks after Christmas. And with Japanese markets closed for holidays today and many other major centers in the Asia-Pacific region prepared for Christmas, market players were reluctant to actively participate in trading this morning. Euro-dollar was last at $1.3182, after a very narrow $1.3172 to $1.3185 Asian morning range, and almost flat from a late Friday close of $1.3188. Although there won’t be much trading during the first three days of the week, the market remains vulnerable to headlines on the fiscal cliff. Dollar-yen meanwhile was at Y84.39 compared with a U.S. close of Y84.24 on Friday, after a Y84.35 to Y84.49 range this morning. Japan’s prime minister-elect Shinzo Abe at the weekend called on the Bank of Japan to resist what he described as moves by the U.S. and Europe to cheapen their currencies, and noted that a yen level of around Y90 to the dollar would support the profits of Japan’s own exporters. In other pairs aussie-dollar was at $1.0405 ahead of the end of today’s shortened Australian session, following a $1.0387 to $1.0406 range, and up slightly from $1.0398 on Friday.
EasyForexNews Research Team