CURRENCY TRADING INFOR

(Recasts lead, adds analyst comment)

PRAGUE (Thomson Financial) – The Czech February foreign trade surplus grew to its second highest monthly total in history as the firming crown has yet to dampen the country’s rising export growth, although the currency’s effect could show up during the next quarter.

February foreign trade stood at a 14.3 billion Czech crown surplus, growing by 1.4 billion crowns year-on-year and bolstered by rising trade in cars and machinery, data released by the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) showed today.

The figure was compared to market expectations of a 12.8 billion crown surplus and versus a 12.2 billion crown surplus in January.

Exports grew 11.4 percent annually, while imports rose 11.5 percent, the data showed.

“There is no visible impact from the strong crown yet,” said Jan Vejmelek, of Komercni Banka.

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BUDAPEST (Dow Jones)–Hungary’s foreign currency reserves totaled EUR16.82 billion at the end of March, up from EUR16.11 billion at the end of February, and also slightly higher from EUR17.00 billion a year earlier, the National Bank of Hungary said Monday. The figures are preliminary, the bank said. Foreign currency reserves stood at EUR16.39 billion at the end of 2007. Central bank Web site: www.mnb.hu -By Margit Feher, Dow Jones Newswires; +361-267-0622; margit.feher@dowjones.com (END) Dow Jones Newswires April 07, 2008 03:23 ET (07:23 GMT) Copyright 2008 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. .

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2008-04-07 09:06:10 Japan Financial Corp.’s JFM 60 bln yen bonds rated ‘AA’ – S&P

BANGALORE (Thomson Financial) – Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services said it has assigned its ‘AA’ senior unsecured local currency long-term debt rating to Japan Finance Corp. for Municipal Enterprises’ (JFM) 60 billion yen 2.29 percent series 24 non-guaranteed bonds due April 2028, reflecting the corporation’s robust public policy role as the primary government financial institution supplying long-term and low-cost financing for public projects.

2008-04-07 08:47:02 Pimco’s Erian sees crisis prompting further asset writedowns, dollar declines

FRANKFURT (Thomson Financial) – Mohamed El-Erian, co-CEO of Allianz SE bond manager Pacific Investments Management Company (Pimco), expects the credit crisis to trigger further asset writedowns as well as corporate victims, and sees the dollar declining further over the next five years.

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On March 28, President Bush announced his intention to nominate two Democrats, Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter, to fill empty seats at the Securities and Exchange Commission. By law, the five person commission may not have more than three members from the President’s political party. The Commission has been operating with only three Republican commissioners since Annette Nazareth left in January and Roel Campos left last September.

Elisse Walter is a former deputy director of the SEC’s corporation finance division. She is currently serving as a Senior Executive Vice President for Regulatory Policy & Programs at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

Mr. Aguilar is a former SEC attorney who also served as General Counsel of INVESCO…. .

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There are two views of the financial crisis. The first is that we face the bursting of a real estate bubble, a product of loose monetary policy, no-doc loans and alphabet-soup financial securities. The second is that we face the bursting of that bubble plus a terrifying long-term one that has been building since the Reagan era. This second bubble is the product of a quarter-century expansion in borrowing, excessive confidence in the dollar and an overblown faith in markets.

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MUMBAI (Reuters) – A senior trader at Bank of America has resigned to join JPMorgan Chase & Co in India to head its currency trading operations, two sources familiar with the matter said on Monday.

Brijen Puri had spent about seven years at Bank of America and was part of its trading desk, the sources told Reuters.

Srinivasan Varadarajan, head of treasury at JPMorgan, declined to comment. Sanjeev Bajaj, managing director and country treasurer, at Bank of America could not be immediately reached.

International firms such as Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and UBS have been on a hiring spree from rivals to bolster presence in the fast growing Indian market.

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TOKYO (Thomson Financial) – Japan is hoping that the G7 meeting next week will reaffirm that sharp movements in the currency market are disadvantageous, Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Mukata said Friday.

“It is important to reconfirm at the G7 meeting the shared view that excessive movements in the foreign currency market are undesirable for global economic growth,” Nukata told reporters.

Last month the U.S. dollar fell as low as 96.45 yen, a level not seen since August 1995.

The dollar was around 102.45-49 yen in morning trading in Tokyo, compared with 102.29 yen in late trading in New York.

The meeting of G7 central bankers and finance ministers is to be held in Washington on April 11. Nukaga said he would like an open exchange of views at the meeting about ways to stabilize financial markets and economies.

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CHICAGO – Apr 3/08 – SNS — Following is the currency futures comment from Alaron Trading Corp.

Dollar Index (DXM8):

The DX opened higher at 73.13 and touched a morning Hi of 73.16, before a weaker than expected Jobless Claims report showed an increase of � +38,000 new names on the unemployed �rolls vs the expected ‘unchanged’ level last week. Prices retraced throughout �the day as traders may be looking for �Friday’s Non-Farm Payroll Report to be weaker than �expected. A previous ADP private sector report, built �expectations that the -50,000 potential decrease in payrolls �may be too high, but todays’ data �saw traders running for higher yields. Prices dropped to a mid-day Lo of 72.47 and ended the session at 72.485, down 18.5 tics. �The s/t trend remains ‘positive’ (above the 9-day MA of 72.481) with ‘neutral’ momentum indicators.

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The waning banking sector is dragging down the UK performance of white-collar recruitment specialist Michael Page International, threatening the group’s own staffing levels.

The company said today it was taking a “more cautionary” approach to adding staff in some regions, particularly the UK, in the weaker economic environment.

The group’s UK division posted a 6.7pc increase in first-quarter gross profit, compared with a 33 per cent jump across the company.

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(RTTNews) – In early Asian trading on Monday, the Canadian dollar trended higher against its major counterparts.

Japan’s leading economic and coincident index data for February are expected shortly. French trade balance, Euro-zone sentix investor confidence and the German industrial production have been slated for release in the European session.

The Canadian building permits data for February is scheduled to be released at 8:30 am ET.

The loonie advanced to 1.5777 versus the euro by about 10:00 pm ET Sunday. The loonie closed last week’s deals at 1.5895 per euro.

Against the Aussie, the Canadian dollar edged higher during early Asian deals on Monday and reached 0.9260 at about 10:10 pm ET. The pair closed Friday’s New York session deals at 0.9315.

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