ForexLive Asia Wrap: USD/JPY Approaches 94.00

Australian December Retail sales dropped 0.2%. vs. expectations of an increase of 0.3% Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said the recent radar incident was ‘extremely regrettable' and a provocative action BOJ board member Takehiro Sato made comments in a speech (PDF) today; they had little impact on the Yen It was a light day for economic data releases and news after the fireworks in Europe and New York. Currency markets reflected this lack of new input today, settling into tight ranges almost across the board. The Yen, in keeping with recent activity was the most active, continuing to lose ground; USD/JPY trading to 93.90 in Tokyo, EUR/JPY to just above 127.60. AUD/USD behaved in a very heavy fashion, unable to pick itself up off 1.0350/55, recent lows. The entire market seems bearish, and justifiably so, seemingly searching for a new impetus for a move below 1.0350. Poor retail sales data today could not do the trick. I've lost count of how many times AUD has looked awful only to spurt 3 big figures higher ... but maybe this time lower for sure? Interestingly, USD/CHF had a 35-point rally from its lows today. It's a sad day when we are reduced to talking about USD/CHF as a big mover in Asia :-) .