a to
YEN: Marshall Gittler, head of FX strategy at IronFX, makes the case for a gold
long against the yen. First, there is scope for further up-momentum in
dollar-yen, as evidenced by the pair's resilience Thursday "even while the
dollar and stocks were weakening before the Sunday session of Congress was
announced," he says. On the gold front, prices appear to have stabilized in
recent sessions and "the fiscal cliff impasse and hopes for further monetary
easing in Japan (and a weaker yen) could steady prices further, he says. "As PM
Abe and his cabinet colleagues ratchet up the pressure on the Bank of Japan and
talk about creating inflation and weakening the yen, we remember with fondness
the days of the yen carry trade, which was great for commodities," Gittler says,
adding that "buying gold against JPY could be a good way to ease into this
trade, as even a stable XAU/USD price could mean higher XAU/JPY."
DOLLAR: Barclays Capital's Yuki Sakasai looks at possible FX flows related to
month-end rebalancing. European equity and bond markets outperformed in
December, while US fiscal cliff concerns weighed on US stocks. And Japanese bond
markets underperformed in light of "the LDP's landslide victory in the Lower
House election and new PM Abe's explicit demand for the BOJ to adopt at 2%
inflation target," he says. Events in Japan have resulted in a "neutral"
dollar-yen signal (also neutral for dollar-Canada) from Barclays model for month
end. "On the other hand, equity outperformance in the euro area, the UK and
Australia has led to weak USD buying signals against EUR, GBP and AUD," Sakasai
says.