Currencies

• EUR/USD The pair came under pressure due to a significant rise in investor risk aversion driven by news of another aftershock in Japan and warnings of a rise in the severity of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant to the same level as Chernobyl. The EUR/USD opened the Asian session at 1.4435 after a quiet US session. The Euro fell from 1.4420 to 1.4376 before it was pushed back to 1.4390.


• USD/JPY The yen strengthened after Japan raised the severity rating of the accident at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi power plant to match the 1986 Chernobyl disaster. Japan's currency increased to 83.90 per dollar from 84.60, after reaching 83.47.


• GBP/USD With the realization that energy prices at current levels are not encouraging to sustained global growth, overnight markets pared back risk. The pair opened on its highs at 1.6344 and has traded down to a 1.6280 low so far.

Commodities

GOLD retreated as a rally to a record which prompted some investors to sell, and reduced economic growth forecasts from the International Monetary Fund tumbled the energy prices. Immediate-delivery bullion fell 0.6 percent to $1,454.68 an ounce at 11:26 a.m. in Singapore after touching an all-time high of $1,478.18 yesterday. Gold for June delivery in New York lost 0.8 percent to $1,456.60.

OIL fell for a second day due to concern that fuel demand will slow after the International Monetary Fund cut its U.S. and Japan growth forecasts, pointing that high crude prices pose a risk to global economic expansion. The IMF said in its World Economic Outlook that the U.S. economy will expand at a slower pace than in 2010 amid an unemployment rate above 8 percent and a drop in consumer confidence. Oil for May delivery slid as much as $2.05, or 1.9 percent, to $107.87 a barrel, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, and was at $108.34 at 1:17 p.m. Singapore time.

Sources: Bloomberg, FT