ForexLive Asian market wrap: Risk trades make modest recovery as Asia buys Gold

Japanese GDP rises on strong domestic demand PM Noda: Important for government and BOJ to work closely on beating deflation BOJ Shirakawa: Effect of monetary policy takes some time to appear; wants to achgieve 1% inflation goal asap; relying on monetary policy alone to defeat deflation can lead to unintended effects EconMin Furukawa: Will take bold steps against excessive FX market fluctuations; Japan still in moderate deflation but pace is easing Newspaper reports say that JP Morgan losses could be considerably higher than expected BHP warns that commodity boom starting to slow as Chinese growth matures Singapore's GDP growth was +10% in Q1; exports rose by 8.7% Gold rallies by 0.6% as important support levels loom; ACBs reportedly buying near $1520/25 Regional stockmarkets trade with 0.25% of yesterday's closing levels Not much to report from the Asian session, with some early short-covering in the NZD helping to steady the risk trades which were further bolstered by solid demand for Gold once Asia opened. There was a brief dip when the reports of further JP Morgan losses hit the newswires, but overall risk trades have managed a modest recovery. NZD/USD was the first mover, moving up to .7670 from an opening level near .7645 on Tokyo buying. Solid corporate demand over the last 24 hours has helped to steady the market. AUD/USD followed its smaller neighbour higher and once Gold started to rise, the modest AUD recovery picked up a bit of pace. AUD/USD fell quickly by around 15 pips on the JP Morgan reports but overall its been a fairly insipid session. Ranges: .9905/53 EUR/USD has also managed a modest recovery but ranges have been tight. It has taken its lead from the AUD and from EUR/JPY, but flows have been fairly light. Range: 1.2712/49 USDS/JPY ignored the economic data yet again and also ignored the many comments from BOJ and politicians, trading in a 17 pip range between 80.22/39. Cable 1.5906/32; EUR/CHF 1.2007/12