Gold Rises Above $900 An Ounce Again

Gold rallied above $900 an ounce on Wednesday as investors bet a recent plunge was overdone. A weaker dollar helped boost the metal's hedge appeal.

April gold jumped to $910.70 an ounce, up $14.80 on the session. The metal reached as high as $913.80 for the session.

The dollar fell sharply versus the yen and came under modest pressure against the euro on Wednesday, improving gold's hedge value. The dollar tested its 2-week low from yesterday against the euro and backed away from a four-month best versus the yen.

Gold's gains were somewhat limited by a drop in crude oil prices. Light sweet crude fell $3.38 to finish at $42.33 per barrel. U.S. commercial crude oil inventories increased 749,000 barrels in the week ended March 6, according to Energy Information Administration data.

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Currencies and Economic News

In the currency market, the dollar was lower against the euro. Late Thursday, the euro was trading at $1.2818 vs. $1.2783 on Wednesday.
The story of the day in the currency market was the crash of the Swiss franc, which fell at least 3% against the euro, pound, and USD. As Dan Norcini wrote on jsmineset.com, “The big stunner of [yesterday] was massive intervention by the Swiss National Bank into the Forex markets which absolutely obliterated the Franc. They caught everyone flatfooted and achieved maximum shock value.
“The Swiss cut their 3 month Libor target by 25 basis points but they also stepped into the bond market and purchased substantial amounts of Swiss franc bonds. That in combination with them buying large amounts of foreign currency is in my view what shoved gold up so sharply today. The strategy of the Swiss is pretty clear – undercut their own currency to remain export competitive especially against the Euro and the US Dollar and provide substantial amounts of liquidity in the process.”
Among the day’s hard data, the Commerce Department said that retail sales dropped 0.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis in February. Hardly something to crow about, but it was a whole lot better than the 0.4% decline expected by economists. January's sales gain was revised up, to a 1.8% growth rate from the 1% increase estimated.
“How about that!” exclaimed economist Jennifer Lee of BMO Capital Markets. But she added that, “Consumers are fighting a good fight, but with such a terrible job market, it is tough to imagine how they can keep it going for long.”
Her skepticism is surely well-founded. The Labor Department reported yesterday that first-time applications for unemployment benefits rose by 9,000 last week to 654,000, up 88% from a year earlier. The number of people collecting jobless benefits also increased, up 193,000 to a record 5.32 million, Labor said.

FOREX-Euro hits 2-mth high vs yen, 2-1/2 week high vs dlr

LONDON, March 13 (Reuters) - The euro jumped to a two-month high against the yen and reached a 2-1/2 week high against the dollar on Friday, helped by solid gains on equity markets.
Gains against the yen were also helped as the market digested the Swiss National Bank's action to weaken the Swiss franc.
European shares jumped 2 percent .FTEU3 and were on course for a fourth consecutive day of gains, following data showing U.S. retail sales fell much less than forecast in February, which also encouraged investors to pull out of the perceived safety of the dollar.

Forex-Dollar trades on rallies and falls in U.S. stocks

NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - The dollar barely clung to gains against the euro in volatile trade on Friday as changing stock market sentiment pushed investors first to buy the greenback as a safe haven, then sell it on higher risk tolerance.
The U.S. currency had earlier erased losses triggered by gains in the stock market following better-than-expected U.S. economic data and signs the U.S. banking sector may be stabilizing.
As stocks came off, the dollar rallied. But as the U.S. session moved closer to the end of the trading day, the dollar again began to struggle.
"The dollar rally here versus the euro is all about stocks. Sentiment has turned in fits and starts," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"All that is happening right now is a reality check and investors are asking whether this is really the bottom here. But conviction is really low and that's why we're seeing perpetual setbacks like this," he added.

Forex-Dollar edges down vs euro as US stocks rise

NEW YORK, March 13 (Reuters) - The dollar gave up its gains against the euro on Friday in volatile trade as U.S. stocks closed the week in positive territory, prompting investors to take on more risk.
The U.S. currency had swung between gains and losses for most of the day, following trends in the stock market amid better-than-expected economic data and signs the banking sector may be stabilizing.
"Sentiment has turned in fits and starts," said Brian Dolan, chief currency strategist at Forex.com in Bedminster, New Jersey.
"All that is happening right now is a reality check and investors are asking whether this is really the bottom here. But conviction is really low and that is why we're seeing perpetual setbacks like this," he added.
In late afternoon trading, the euro edged up 0.1 percent against the dollar to $1.2919 . For the week, the single currency rose 1.9 percent, its best weekly gain since the week ended Dec. 21.

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Foreign exchange market

The foreign exchange market (currency, forex, or FX) market is where currency trading takes place. It is where banks and other official institutions facilitate the buying and selling of foreign currencies. ^[1]FX transactions typically involve one party purchasing a quantity of one currency in exchange for paying a quantity of another. The foreign exchange market that we see today started evolving during the 1970s when worldover countries gradually switched to floating exchange rate from their erstwhile exchange rate regime, which remained fixed as per the Bretton Woods system till 1971.

Today, the FX market is one of the largest and most liquid financial markets in the world, and includes trading between large banks, central banks, currency speculators, corporations, governments, and other institutions. The average daily volume in the global foreign exchange and related markets is continuously growing. Traditional daily turnover was reported to be over US$3.2 trillion in April 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements.^[2] Since then, the market has continued to grow. According to Euromoney's annual FX Poll, volumes grew a further 41% between 2007 and 2008.^[3]

The purpose of FX market is to facilitate trade and investment. The need for a foreign exchange market arises because of the presence of multifarious international currencies such as US Dollar, Pound Sterling, etc., and the need for trading in such currencies.