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NZD.
The New Zealand dollar dropped from a 10-day high on Tuesday during the Asian session, feeling the downward pressure from the major currencies\' dynamics and the Chinese authorities member\'s comments, which caused the US dollar strengthening.

A sharp but limited kiwi decrease was provoked by Reuters report that Peng Junming, the representative of China Investment Corp., thought that the US dollar had already reached the bottom. This led to the decline of the Euro, Australian dollar and Gold prices, then the New Zealand currency joined them. Junming noted that, in his private opinion, the US currency would start to rise when China and the USA enhance interest rates in the second half of this year.

However, the kiwi has quite good perspectives and it may breach the level of 0,7500 US dollar which was observed in the middle of October for the last time.
Earlier, during the trading session the NZD rose to 0,7433, the highest level since Nov, 19.

The pair strengthened on the back of improvement of investors risk appetite, this supported the American stock prices hike, but this support weakened when the Asian shares appeared in a negative zone.

AUD.
The Australian dollar decreased at the Asian trades on Tuesday because the weak data on Home Loans caused the unwillingness of investors to risk. Home Loans in Australia, suffered due to higher interest rates and the leveling of Government grants for buyers at the new homes market, have been reducing for month in a row. According to the Australian statistics office data the number of seasonally adjusted mortgage approvals declined by 5,6% in November from October. Economists, respondent before data release, on average predicted the reduction of credits size by 2,3%.

Considering the fact that recently published economic data was unexpectedly favorable, these statistics exerted pressure on the Australian currency before the Australian unemployment rate report issue on Thursday.

JPY.
The US dollar slumped versus the Japanese yen at Tuesday\'s trades. The growth in investors\' demand for asylum – assets and the lowering of the U.S. treasury bonds profitability supported the Japanese currency.

Besides, the American dollar grew against other higher-yield currencies, having won on the part of the outflow of funds from risk assets, provoked by tightening of the monetary policy in China and by the weakness of stock markets on the back of disappointing financial reports.

The Yen also spiked against the single currency. The Common European Currency reached the sessional low at 131,64 yen which became the lowest level for this currency since January, 05. The American dollar fixed the sessional low at the level of 90,73 yen which was the lowest mark for it since December, 21.

During the most part of 2009 the US dollar decreased versus the yen, having reached a 14-year low of 84,82 yen at the end of November, as low interest rates in the USA induced investors to borrow cheap dollars for financing the purchases of higher – yield currencies. Traditionally, the yen carried out this role. Within the whole December and early in this year, the greenback gained ground against the Japanese currency, but starting from last Friday it began to fall on the back of the lowering of the short – term U.S. treasury bonds profitability which is the most sensible to changes in official rates. The disappointing data on Non – Farm Payrolls in the USA, published on Friday, pointed to the fact that the US Federal Reserve System would not change the rates level for some time, this provoked a new wave of the US dollar descent.

The greenback continued its upturn versus commodity currencies, having started since before the New York session opening, when the Chinese Central Bank raised the level of requirements for bank reserves in yuan by 50 basis points to avoid the inflation. This was the signal of monetary policy tightening start-up by the Chinese authorities.
Any expected monetary policy tightening in China may cause fears regarding activity growth in the world, because it probably exerts pressure on risk appetite.

Best regards,

Analyst: Vladimir Donin.