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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (3773)	4/6/2004 11:17:29 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Nice Real Estate chart stockcharts.com

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (3773)	4/6/2004 11:47:25 PM
From: mishedlo	Respond to of 116555

Japan's forex reserves hits record high for 7 straight months on intervention Wednesday, April 7, 2004 1:46:15 AM TOKYO (AFX-ASIA) - Japan's foreign currency reserve has reached a record high of 826.58 bln usd at the end of March for the seventh straight month, fueled by continued heavy intervention in the foreign exchange market aimed at smoothing the speed of the appreciation of the yen, the Ministry of Finance said "The increase in the March foreign currency reserve is primarily due to intervention," a MoF official said The Bank of Japan, acting on behalf of the MoF, implemented the dollar buying and yen selling intervention, worth 4.7 trln yen between Feb 26 and March 29, with the aim of preventing hazardous appreciation of the yen in the foreign exchange market However, faced with growing criticism over strenuous intervention by G-7 member countries, Japanese authorities have scaled down the size of foreign exchange market intervention from the preceding months. As a result, the monthly rise in foreign currency reserve has also slowed A major Japanese daily, the Asahi Shimbun, reported on Monday, citing unnamed government sources, that Japanese monetary authorities had not stepped into the market to weaken the yen against the dollar since mid-March With Washington poised to step up its criticism against Japan's aggressive intervention ahead of the US Presidential election and a slew of signs showing Japan's economic recovery is broadening and gaining strength, the MoF has decided aggressive intervention is no longer necessary, the report said In January when Japan implemented a record high intervention of some 7 trln yen, foreign currency reserve marked the record high increase of 67.7 bln usd from the previous month But, as Japanese authorities have scaled down the size of intervention in March, foreign currency reserve registered only the third largest increase of 49.7 bln usd The MoF also attributed the continued rise in foreign currency reserve to rises in prices of overseas government bonds and declines in yields of such assets. Bond prices and yields move inversely For instance, the yield of 10-year US government bonds fell to 3.839 pct by the end of March from 3.975 pct at the end of February "In addition, rising price of gold has also helped buoy the value of assets," the MoF official said The price of gold rose to 423.70 usd by the end of March from 395.85 usd at the end of February "These factors well overwhelmed the negative impact stemmed from the decline of the value of the euro against the dollar," the MoF official noted The euro fell to 1.2312 usd by the end of March from 1.24910 usd at the end of February Despite the slowdown in the pace of growth in foreign currency reserve, Japan's foreign reserves remained the highest in the world for the 52nd straight month. Foreign exchange reserves consist of securities and deposits denominated in foreign currencies plus International Monetary Fund (IMF) reserves, IMF special drawing rights and gold Foreign currency reserves stood at 806.02 bln usd, IMF reserves at 7.40 bln usd, SDRs at 2.73 bln usd and gold at 10.42 bln usd. fxstreet.com

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (3773)	4/6/2004 11:49:47 PM
From: mishedlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Reserve Bank of Australia leaves official cash rate at 5.25 pct Wednesday, April 7, 2004 12:47:44 AM The Reserve Bank of Australia left the official cash rate unchanged at 5.25 pct when it announced its money market cash position this morning The decision to leave rates unchanged was widely expected, with a survey of economists by AFX-Asia showing most in the market had expected the central bank to keep rates steady amid continuing signs of a slowdown in the domestic economy.