ForexLive Americas wrap up: Risk-off repressed

Forex trading headlines for April 22, 2013:

• US existing home sales 4.92M vs 5.00M exp
• Fed's Dudley: QE has worked
• New Italian President threatens to resign
• ECB's Noyer: Eurozone is more robust than a year ago
• Chatter about Japanese investment funds looking abroad
• Plot to blow up Canadian train foiled
• Boston bombing suspect charged
• US March Chicago Fed national activity index is soft
• Gold +$21 to $1425
• S&P 500 up 0.5% to 1563
• GBP leads, CHF lags

The lowly existing home sales report caused a stir in markets. The soft numbers sparked a round of risk-off trading that pulled down yen crosses and the commodity currencies. EUR/JPY fell momentarily below 129 before storming back to 129.99. USD/JPY touched some stops below 99.00 then climbed to 99.48. Last at 99.26. The big figures were having particularly strong sway.

EUR/USD had another look at 1.3000 but only got as low as 1.3015 and then stabilized before popping to 1.3069.

USD/CAD climbed as high as 1.0285 but slipped back to 1.0260 and AUD/USD ran into major bids ahead of 1.0235 and is at 1.0267.