With many of the markets in Asia Pacific and most of Europe still closed for Easter holiday, trading in the currency markets was characteristically quiet with risk appetite the dominant theme as high beta currencies staged a slow but steady rally throughout the night . The action started in very early Asia when stop running in the AUD/USD pushed the pair through the 7300 handle in very thin trading conditions. Aussie retreated off the highs settling near the 7250 level but it set the tone for the rest of the day as euro, pound and other high beta currencies all rose in tandem.

With no fireworks from this weekend’s 3 big event risks, the rallies in the currency and equity markets are fizzling. Having been up more than 150 points intraday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the U.S. trading session down 7 points. This lack of follow through was replicated in the foreign exchange market with the Euro and British pound giving up earlier gains. Promises can only take the markets so far and the lack of concrete actions by the G20 has disappointed investors. Although we have previously mentioned that bear markets can rally as much as 25 percent, today’s intraday reversal is worrisome. Looking at the economic calendar this week, there is not much event risk to energize investors

The euro and pound rose on the first trading day of the week as risk appetite returned to the currency market after US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner promised to release details of a new plan to use a private and public partnership funds to remove toxic assets off the balance sheets of US banks. Both Asian and European equities rose providing a strong bid tone to the risk currencies. Cable rallied through the 1.4100 handle and euro approached the psychologically key 1.3000 level by midday European trade.

EUR/USD got off to a strong start on the first trading day of the week, as optimism among Asian equity investors, whetted risk appetite pushing the pair to within a whisker of 1.3500 level in early European trade. Both Nikkei and Kospi propelled higher rallying more than 5% each on the day, boosted by a variety of factors from the expectations of bailout of US automakers to the more than 7% spike in Baltic Dry Goods index on Friday.