Yen Lower Against Other Currencies Ahead Of BoJ

The Yen corrected itself over night against all of the other 16 currencies it’s paired against. This comes after the economic Minister of Japan commented that it is strongly believed that that the yen’s weakening was nearly finished. He also said that it was belief that a further weakening of the yen could negatively affect the country and its citizens economically. There is a two-day Bank of Japan policy meeting which will be watched keenly by traders.

Meanwhile traders are also sitting on the sidelines in anticipation of the Fed Reserve comments due tomorrow given by Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Stocks
Investors remain cautious ahead of the Fed Reserve meeting as it is widely expected that the Central Bank will put an end to their QE programme. This caused the Asian stocks to move between slight gains and losses. In the Asian session the Nikkei 225 saw a 0.01 percent gain ahead of the start of today's BoJ two-day meeting, with the Australian ASX 200 index closed up 0.6 percent.

The EU’s second biggest trading partner China has come under some criticism by EU members who claim China cannot be a “free rider on trade” and need to take responsibility for their trade policies including exports. Chinese stocks were mixed with the Shanghai Composite up 0.03 percent and the Hang Seng down 0.26 percent. A summit between U.S. and China is taking placing next month.

European stocks were mixed too in the European morning session with the EURO STOXX 50 up 0.09 percent, the French CAC 40 down 0.14 percent ad the German DAX 30 up 0.09 percent.

Forex
The USD saw mixed trading with low volume as investors sit on the sidelines before the Fed Reserve and BoJ meeting. The EUR was up 0.07 percent against the USD with the dollar up against the yen. The yen was down against all of its pairings after talk from Amari the Japanese economic minister. The AUD was up 0.22 percent and the CAD was down 0.07 percent.

Commodities
Gold and silver rebounded from heavy losses yesterday with pressure from Central Bank. The gold was up 0.86 percent and silver up 0.92 percent. Crude oil was up 0.05 percent on the stronger dollar and Natural Gas was down 0.29 percent on warm weather.

What To Watch
All eyes on UK this morning as they will see a string of economic data releases in the early trading, which should push up the GBP. FOMC member Bullard talks later in the afternoon and SNB Chairman Jordan and BoC Governor Carney who will all give clues as to the future of monetary policy in the U.S.