Trade The News | Mar 22, 2013 07:46AM ET
Markets Snapshot (as of 03:00 GMT)
Asian equity markets are mired in uncertainty, as investor sentiment remains confounded by the lack of clarity in Cyprus. After failing to secure support from the Russian officials in Moscow, Cyprus lawmakers will convene tomorrow to try to come up with a more politically tenable answer to Eurogroup demand for a €5.8B bailout collateral. In turn, Eurogroup have acknowledged that pushing for "bail-in" to include deposit tax from accounts under €100K is unrealistic, but still insisit on Cyprus imposing a bank deposit levy. Cyprus Parliament is expected to vote on a new measure early on Friday, after which Troika officials will conduct analysis and make recommendations to the Eurogroup. EUR/USD briefly fell below $1.29 late in US session before recovering late in the US hours.
Nikkei225 is the biggest decliner among the regional indices, tracking stronger JPY. New BOJ Gov Kuroda's first press conference was largely seen as underwhelming, with the new central bank head remaining mum on any plans for an extraordinary policy action before the regularly-scheduled Apr 4th meeting. Kuroda was also less than resolute in affirming his commitment to a 2-year time frame in reaching the BOJ 2% inflation target, merely indicating that would be the standard expectation for an incoming central bank governor. USD/JPY fell as low as ¥94.52 in the US session - the lowest level since Monday. Later in the Asian hours, Japan's PM Abe said he would be flexible with the hard ¥44T cap on annual new bond issuance and also reiterated the plans for an increase in consumption tax may be revised if the economy cannot generate enough new jobs.
Currencies/Fixed Income/Commodities
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