Forex News

By Leika Kihara TOKYO (Reuters) - The Bank of Japan kept its policy settings unchanged on Thursday, but said it will bring forward its next meeting to speed up the launch of a 5 trillion yen ($61 billion) asset buying plan aimed at helping the economy cope with a strong yen. The BOJ unveiled the plan on October 5 and vowed to keep interest rates near zero as long as the economy was mired in deflation, so no one expected the central bank to ease its policy further this week. Instead, the BOJ offered a detailed breakdown of assets it plans to buy and said it would meet on November 4-5 rather than in mid-November as originally planned, to speed up its purchases of less conventional assets such as exchange traded funds. By fleshing out the plan, the central bank made it easier to justify boosting the scheme as soon as next month if the yen shoots up toward record highs, sources familiar with...

By Isabel Reynolds TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc <7751.T> staved off the impact of a strong yen and raised its full-year outlook as strong sales of office equipment and digital cameras helped it beat forecasts with a 74 percent jump in quarterly profit. The pace of earnings growth may be slowing, however, as the benefits of recovering volumes run their course for Canon, the world's biggest maker of digital cameras, ahead of Sony Corp <6758.T> and Nikon Corp <7731.T>. Last month, Chairman Fujio Mitarai said he was keen to pursue mergers and acquisition opportunities in medical and industrial technology. Along with rival technology exporters Sony and Nikon Corp, Canon faces the challenge of coping with a strengthening yen that is crimping the value of overseas earnings. "While the revised forecast is roughly in line with the consensus, I think these are positive figures because some expected Canon to keep its outlook given the yen's gain," said Naoki Fujiwara, a fund manager at Shinkin Asset Management. On...

By David Fox HONG KONG, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Asian stocks hovered near a 28-month high on Tuesday and the dollar steadied after a steep decline, with debate about the outcome of the next Federal Reserve meeting clouding the near-term outlook. Major European stock markets opened a touch weaker, with the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index down 0.1 percent. After no major policy initiatives emerged from a Group of 20 finance ministers meeting over the weekend, investors had kept selling the dollar on expectations that further asset-buying from the Fed will lead to debasement of the U.S. currency. Fed officials, however, have not been uniform in their comments about "QE2", leading to some doubts in markets about how big such a programme will be. Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig even called more asset buys by the central bank a "very dangerous gamble".  Expectations of more cheap money flooding the financial system have been pushing up global equity and commodity prices, which briefly hit a 27-month...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures dipped on Tuesday, the day after the market hit a five-and-a-half month high, while the dollar steadied. Corporate earnings will be in focus as DuPont and Co <DD.N> posted higher-than-expected profit as sales rose across all business units, while Ford Motor Co <F.N> posted a profit that exceeded estimates and said it expected to eliminate its net debt by year-end. Late Monday, Texas Instruments Inc <TXN.N> warned that fourth-quarter revenue will be hurt by slowing demand, but quarterly results topped expectations. Bristol-Myers Squibb Co <BMY.N> is also due to report later Tuesday. Equities and the dollar have formed an inverse relationship exacerbated by expectations the U.S. Federal Reserve will embark on another round of economic stimulus. The greenback steadied Tuesday, with investors wary of pushing it lower. The dollar index <.DXY> was up 0.2 percent. Stocks rose to a five-and-a-half month high on Monday as a falling dollar, partly driven by expectations of further Fed stimulus, prompted investors...

TOKYO, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The dollar has fallen within spitting distance of its postwar record low against the yen and market players say Japanese authorities may intervene again if it falls sharply, after they did so in September. A G20 pledge to avoid competitive currency devaluations has muddied the waters for Tokyo but policy-makers have since repeated said they will take decisive steps in the forex market when needed and that their stance on intervention is unchanged. But there is a growing impression among some traders that with a debate globally about competitive currency devaluation and Japan's recent criticism of South Korea for intervention, Tokyo may not intervene again, even though it says it might. The dollar has lost about 4 percent against the yen since the end of August and 13 percent so far this year, despite 2.1 trillion yen or $25 billion worth of intervention last month, with the U.S. currency sold across the board after the Federal Reserve signalled...

By Clare Baldwin and Paritosh Bansal NEW YORK (Reuters) - BankUnited, owned by some of the world's most powerful private equity firms, plans to file for a public offering this week, looking to raise roughly $500 million, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday. BankUnited plans to use the proceeds from an initial public offering and a secondary offering to buy other banks, one of the sources said. Private equity firms, including Wilbur Ross's WL Ross & Co, Carlyle Group <CYL.UL>, Blackstone Group <BX.N> and Centerbridge Partners, bought the assets of failed BankUnited FSB in May last year from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The firms put $900 million in the bank and installed former North Fork Bank head John Kanas as CEO. The deal, attractive for loss protections from the FDIC, led to a surge of other private investors looking to enter the U.S. banking sector. But it was also followed by tighter regulations, humbling investors' aspirations. The planned offering would make...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Tuesday, with futures for the S&P 500 down 0.14 percent, Dow Jones futures down 0.17 percent and Nasdaq 100 futures down 0.14 percent at 0900 GMT. * Texas Instruments Inc <TXN.N> will be in focus after it warned its fourth-quarter revenue will be hurt by slowing demand for chips for computers and televisions, sending its shares lower in extended trading, even though its results beat Wall Street forecasts. [ID:nN25274454] Shares in Texas Instruments traded in Frankfurt <TXN.F> were down 0.1 percent. * Investors await a flurry of quarterly results on Tuesday, including earnings from DuPont <DD.N>, Ford Motor Co <F.N> and Bristol-Myers Squibb <BMY.N>. On the macroeconomic side, data expected on Tuesday include the Conference Board's October consumer confidence, the S&P Case/Shiller Home Price Index for August, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond's October indexes on area manufacturing and service sectors. * Shares of financial services...

TOP STORIES > Dollar off post-G20 low ahead of Bernanke urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nSGE69N02Y > Aussie jumps on surprisingly firm producer prices urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nSGE69O018 > G20 has to show compromise FX pact packs meaning urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nSGE69O00S > Gold higher on weaker dollar; Bernanke speech eyed urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nSGE69N03J > China c.bank sets yuan mid-point at 6.6729 urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nTST000559 > US' Geithner: China engaged on forex-Bloomberg TV urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nN23145362 > S.Korea won up after G20; official remark weighs urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nTOE69O007 ........................................... Foreign exchange news rolling highlights FXNEWS ........................................... TOP NEWS SUMMARIES ON OTHER SUBJECTS Front Page TOP/NEWS Politics Policy & Risk TOP/G Global Economy ...

ANKARA, Oct 25 (Reuters) - Turkey's central bank said on Monday it would buy up to a maximum additional $300 million in foreign exchange auctions between October 25-27 CBTQ . The bank looks to build its dollar reserves and contain a strengthening lira IYIX= and it purchased a total of $700 million last week from the market including an additional $500 million. No auctions will be held on Thursday and Friday due to a national holiday. ((selcuk.gokoluk@thomsonreuters.com; +90 312 292 7012; Reuters messaging: selcuk.gokoluk.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))

The main moving sentiment in the market this week is the weekend G20 meeting and the new pledges from member nations which all sided to the disadvantage of the dollar. The Group of 20 finance leaders in South Korea pledged to avoid intervening in the market to weaken their currencies to gain trade advantages, which gave the dollar the bearish bias on expectations in the market that nations will refrain from unilaterally selling their currencies versus the dollar at least into next month when the nations’ leaders meet. This sentiment worked against the dollar and weakened it further adding to the quantitative easing prospects and weakening recovery outlook. The pledges rather calmed markets and eased the jitters seen recently over prospects for a new round of currency wars, and adding to that it supported expectations for China to move faster on the yuan revaluation which will also be good support for global trade and the recovery. The dollar was moving bearishly since this...