Session recap: Quiet post-holiday Asian session sports euro and US Dollar as big movers

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Global traders returned to action – at least in part – Friday and for the most part continued the recent trends.

Top movers in the Asian session

Yen weakness and British Pound strength were the two most obvious cases of trends continuing. The US Dollar bucking the Fed-tapering news and continuing to trade sluggish is another stand out in Asian trading. Unlike the Pound strength and Yen weakness, the weakness in the DXY is counter-intuitive given the Fed’s recent actions and is inspiring increasing chatter about its possible causes.

Japanese data flow highlights very quiet Asian trading session

• Japanese Manufacturing PMI came out and showed a modest m/m gain
• Japanese CPI came out and also showed a modest m/m gain
• Japanese Household Spending came out much lower than expected
• Japanese Unemployment came out slightly higher than expected
• Japanese Industrial Production came out lower than expected
• Japanese Retail Sales came out slightly better than expected

The net effect of the news on the Yen was even more weakness – clearly giving more weight to the unemployment, household spending and industrial production data.

Main headlines in Asia:

USD/JPY lifting again as Japanese data flow fails to induce selling pressure; ST target 105.50

Japan's civil service pension fund raises allocation on riskier assets

DXY still defying the “taper-hawks” by failing to break out to the upside