Oil rises above $50; yen gains after Japan GDP revised upwards

The yen strengthened 0.5 per cent after the release of Japan’s March quarter GDP growth which showed the economy grew at a 1.9 per cent annualized pace in Q1. This was in line with economists’ expectations, but revised higher from the initial estimate of 1.7 per cent.

USDJPY moved lower after the Japanese data to touch a low of 106.71 yen, which was close to Monday’s one-month low of 106.35 yen.

EURUSD was effectively unchanged at $1.1359, having closed the last two days virtually flat after a 2 percent surge on Friday’s disappointing U.S. non-farm report.

GBPUSD was steady at $1.4540 after having gained roughly 0.8 percent overnight as two polls gave a narrow lead to the “Remain” camp. The uncertainty over whether Britain will vote to remain in or leave the European Union at a referendum on June 23 will likely continue to sway the pound.

AUDUSD traded around $0.7454, holding onto gains after surging more than 1 percent on Monday to a one-month high of $0.7478 after the Reserve Bank of Australia left rates unchanged.

In commodities, gold, which is sensitive to US interest rate expectations and has an inverse relationship with the US dollar, was up 0.3 per cent at $1,249.10 an ounce today.

Oil prices held onto gains in Asian trading after solid gains overnight. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded at $51.51 a barrel, while West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, traded at $50.55.

Supply disruption due to unplanned outages in Nigeria and Canada helped shrink the global oil glut and consequently helped buoy oil prices. Meanwhile, a report from the Energy Information Administration on Tuesday showed US crude production fell by 250,000 barrels a day in May from April, the largest one-month decline in years.

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