By CountingPips.com
The U.S. dollar and Japanese yen have been advancing in forex trading today as investor risk aversion has been the dominate force in the markets. The dollar and yen have both gained versus the euro, British pound, Swiss franc, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar. Head-to-head the yen has traded higher against the dollar.
Fears over the new Greek bailout plan and whether it can succeed have shaken investors and traders today prompting
The euro has been on the defensive against the dollar for a second straight day as the EUR/USD pair has declined to trade at its lowest exchange rate in over a year. The EUR/USD has touched a low today of 1.3007 and marked its lowest level since April 28, 2009. Currently, the pair trades around 1.3010 and could see further short-term losses.
The U.S. stock markets, meanwhile, have declined sharply today on investor risk aversion with the Dow Jones down by over 200 points, the Nasdaq decreasing over 65 points and the S&P 500 falling by more than 25 points at time of writing.
Oil has been on the defensive today with decline of $3.12 to $83.07 per barrel while gold has fallen by $13.70 to trade at the $1,169.00 per ounce level.
US Economic News: Pending Homes Sales gain in March
U.S. economic news released today showed that pending homes sales rose for the second straight month in March, according to the monthly report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) today. The NAR report showed that pending home sales contracts signed by buyers grew by 5.3 percent in March following February’s 8.2 percent revised decrease. On an annual basis, pending home sales were 21.1 percent above the March 2009 sales level.
The March sales increase matched the market forecasts that were expecting a 5.3 percent gain.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun commented on pending home sales level saying, “Clearly the home buyer tax credit has helped stabilize the market. In the months immediately following the expiration of the tax credit, we expect measurably lower sales.” Yun also said the future outlook seems to be bright for the beleagered industry, “Later in the second half of the year, and into 2011, home sales will likely become self-sustaining if the economy can add jobs at a respectable pace, and from a return of buyer demand as they see home values stabilizing.”
On a regional basis, pending home sales in the Northeast fell by 3.3 percent in March while the Midwest sales edged higher by 1.2 percent. Sales in the South rose by 12.7 percent while sales in the West increased by 1.9 percent for the month.
On an annual basis, all four areas were above the March 2009 sales level with the Northeast showing an annual gain of 27.2 percent, the Midwest showing a 18.5 percent annual rise, the South showing a 28.3 percent increase and the West showing a 8.8 percent annual advancement.
Forex Trading: EUR/USD Forex Chart – The Euro falling for a second consecutive day today versus the US Dollar in trading. The markets are skeptical if this weekend’s bailout for Greece will be enough to solve the country’s debt crisis and whether the crisis will spread to other high debt eurozone nations like Spain and Portugal. The EUR/USD is currently trading at its lowest level since late April of 2009.