The positive closure of Wall Street (good data on the leading index, on existing home sales and on unemployment benefits) propitiated a positive day in Asia, where, however, today's good performance is not enough to avoid a decline over the week of MSCI Asia Pacific regional index. This index however rose 0,3% towards the end of the Asian day. The Nikkei also rose (+0,1%), despite the yen having interrupted its decline, which in fact had been too rapid (yesterday it had reached 118,7 against the dollar): in the early afternoon the Japanese reached 117,9. Halting the yen's crumbling was a comment from Finance Minister Taro Aso that the depreciation in recent days had been messy.
A contribution to the calm climate was given by the Chinese central bank, which intervened by injecting liquidity, and thus confirming the expansive stance of monetary policy. The euro is stable at 1,255 against the dollar, while gold tries again the assault at 1200 and reaches 1191 $/ounce. WTI crude oil climbs back to 76,3 $/b (79,6 for Brent). Futures on London and New York changed little.
