AUD/USD

Thanks for the analysis

Time to go short GOLD hard
I'll be shorting it @1106

Thanks. Any chart?

By Shri Navaratnam

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Asian shares were higher Tuesday, with stronger-than-expected earnings driving the Australian market up.

Activity remained fairly subdued as many Asian markets--including Singapore, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan--were closed for the Lunar New Year holidays and also due to Monday's U.S. market holiday. Japan's Nikkei 225 was up 0.4%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was up 1.1% and New Zealand's NZX-50 was up 0.5%. South Korea's Kospi, which resumed trading after a holiday Monday, was up 0.6%

Doubts on whether an explicit rescue plan would be delivered for fiscally stressed Greece at an ongoing meeting of European Union finance ministers sidelined some investors. "It appears markets remain sceptical over the chances of concrete measures being announced to support Greece," said Bank of New Zealand in a report.

But there were signs these concerns were easing. Macquarie Private Wealth client adviser Marcus Droga, said he expects the EU to ring fence Greece's sovereign debt issues, adding that China's policy tightening should help keep growth on a sustainable footing. "They will do what they need to do and we can get on with this patchy global economic recovery," he said.

The Australian market was lifted by stronger-than-expected earnings. Westpac bank rose 4.2% after its first quarter cash earnings jumped 33%. Other banks followed Westpac's lead, with ANZ bank up 3.3% and Commonwealth Bank of Australia adding 1.1%.

Materials firms also were also rising, with BHP Billiton up 0.5% and Rio Tinto advancing 1.1%.

OneSteel tacked on 5.0% after its first half profit of A$117 million beat expectations in the A$50 million-A$100 million range.

Macquarie's Droga said the positive earnings surprises should help the market hold some of its gains. "The results so far have mainly been above consensus and that's very positive for our market going forward," he said.

In Japan, some brokerage upgrades were helping stocks like ANA, which advanced 3.5% after Citigroup raised its rating to "buy." Panasonic also rose 1.9% after Citigroup upgraded its rating to "hold." Exporters with high exposure to Europe were weak, with Mazda down 1.4%.

Shinichiro Matsushita, market analyst at Daiwa Securities, said the market has few trading cues due to the holidays. "We may see a calm trading day, with few factors to jolt the market," he said.

KDDI added 0.3% after trading company Sumitomo Corp. said it will launch a tender offer of up to Y122.18 billion to lift its stake in Jupiter Telecommunications to 40% from 27%. The bid comes three weeks after KDDI, Japan's No. 2 telecom carrier by subscribers, said it would pay about $4 billion to buy a 38% stake in Jupiter from Liberty Media Corp. of the U.S. Sumitomo is offering Y139,500 per Jupiter share, a 55% premium to Jupiter's closing share price Monday of Y90,000. Sumitomo Corp. shares dropped 3.3%.

Deutsche Securities said the tender offer could prompt KDDI to sell a portion of its stake in Jupiter as KDDI has little reason to fight Sumitomo to become the leading shareholder.

Steelmakers were propping up the Korean market, supported by hopes for increased demand after the long new year holidays, said Kwak Joong-bo at Hana Daetoo Securities.

Posco rose 1.3%, and Hyundai Steel was up 2.1%. Technology firms were higher following Friday's weakness, with Hynix up 0.2% and Samsung Electronics up 0.4%.

New Zealand shares were supported by casino operator Sky City, which advanced 2.9% after reporting a strong first half result and reiterating its fiscal year guidance. The company's profit rose nearly 30% to NZ$71.0 million. Blue chips such as Fletcher Building also rose, advancing 0.8%, and Telecom tacked on 0.9%.

In Australia, the minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's February meeting showed the decision to leave rates on hold at 3.75% was "finely balanced" and a resumption of hikes is likely if the economy continues to improve as expected. Despite the unexpected decision to pause in February, the minutes suggest more fine-tuning of policy is likely, and only the timing of the next hike remains unclear.

The Australian dollar was mostly steady, and ANZ FX Strategist Amber Rabinov said the currency is likely to draw few cues from the minutes as they were in line with what RBA Governor Glenn Stevens has already spelled out.

Foreign exchange majors were largely quiet, but the euro remained under some selling pressure as traders awaited the outcome of the meeting of EU finance ministers.

The euro was fetching $1.3597 against the dollar, down from $1.3613 late in London trade, and was at Y122.37 against the yen, from Y122.46. The dollar was at Y89.95 from 89.99.

The EU looks like it "doesn't want to make a decision at this point, although this was to a certain extent expected," said Gaitame.com chief analyst Daisaku Ueno. "Uncertainty over Greece's debt issue may continue to fuel risk-aversion," and weigh on the euro, Ueno said.

Japanese government bond futures were lower with the lead March contract at 139.56 from 139.61 Monday. Traders say the five year tender later in the day could attract strong demand, and provide some support to the JGBs.

Front-month Nymex crude oil futures at $74.27 a barrel on Globex, down 14 cents from late Monday in London.

hey DT,

you're shorting Gold, so is your bias on AUDUSD also short?

0.89120 seems to be a good resistance level

Will short at 9180 +/- 20-40 pips....


Weak shorts should bail at that level.

I finally fixed my problem. It was my computer...had a glitch. I was able to close it with a small profit. Thanks for your reply.

I'm hiding out tonight with AUD/CHF and NZD/CHF, short on both.

AUD seems a bit recklessly overbought at the moment.

We'll see.

might have a long wait...

finally back from the lunar new year holiday...office is closed today too but i came in to check up on my aud/usd trade because i haven't been able to check at all over the holiday.

my short from 0.8855 from a few days ago hit one of it's targets at 0.8800. looks like aud/usd dropped to ~0.8784, my second target was at 0.8776. i just opened my charts and looks like we're hitting ~0.8900 resistance again.

i want to add more to my shorts but i just opened my charts and gotta check if that's a good idea.

still got my short trade open from 0.8855 (less lots, as it hit one of my targets)

anybody catch the top to bottom short, from ~.8920 to ~.8784? i had added one lot at around .8915 to catch the ride back down to .8800 (the others were from .8855 to .8800).

just wondering..that's a nice trade for ~136pips

Hi Guys,
it seems that on a 30M, using a Expo MA on a 65 typical is is providing perfect support and resistance switch. See below:

pretty quiet day on the aud/usd forum

sure is, guess its because the markets is quiet

looks like the 100ma on the 8H is at 0.8932 and the 50% retrace is at 0.8955 so if I can catch a short positions in there I think it will be a nice trade for at least 100 pips

was away and then came back and saw the bullish bar on 15min..

Watch Out Guys,... Aud is just break the resistance 0,8920.. ANyone with short position must be Alert..

Well, SL triggered at 8920 for me.
I'll be expecting a retracment from 9000 down to 8950, and if 8950 holds, looks like a change of trend for AUD

broke it almost an hour ago. Sitting at 8937 now.