Article by ForexTime
Oil ended its rally and turned lower on Wednesday in reaction to news that Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike.
Big gains made on Tuesday were faded as both benchmarks reversed, with Brent crude losing 83 cents to $43.20 a barrel, while the US benchmark, WTI oil fell $1.02 to $40.11 a barrel.
The drop in oil prices dampened risk appetite in Asia where equity markets fell and money moved back to safe haven assets. This helped the yen and gold gain.
The yen firmed 0.2 per cent against the US dollar to ¥108.98 following the release of trade data that showed the contraction in imports and exports growth quickened in March from the previous month, while the trade surplus rose to a ¥755bn, its highest level since October 2010.
The euro firmed to $1.1369 from a low of $1.1234 set last week. Further gains may be limited ahead of the European Central Bank (ECB) policy meeting on Thursday.
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The Australian dollar was down a third of a percentage point today, but yesterday hit a 10-month high of $0.7826 after the minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s April meeting seemingly put a floor under interest rates, and the central bank’s governor, Glenn Stevens, did not use a speaking opportunity in New York on Tuesday to jawbone the currency lower.
In emerging market currencies, the Malaysian ringgit was the best-performing Asian currency today, up 0.8 per cent.
Gold ticked up a third of a percentage point higher at $1,254.42.
Article by ForexTime
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