FOREX -Kiwi rallies on hawkish RBNZ, euro eyes ECB speech

YDNEY/SINGAPORE, April 24 (Reuters) - The New Zealand dollar rallied on Thursday after the country's central bank raised interest rates and signalled more hikes ahead, while caution ahead of a speech by the European Central Bank's president kept the euro subdued.

The kiwi climbed to a one-week high of $0.8638 after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand said it would continue to tighten to stay on top of inflationary pressures. As expected, it hiked its cash rate to 3.0 percent from 2.75 percent.

Some in the market had thought it might signal a slowing in the pace of further rate hikes given a stubbornly strong currency and still moderate inflation.

Still, analysts said further gains in the kiwi might be limited.

"We believe further NZD appreciation is likely to be capped within a cent of current rates as the tightening cycle is fairly priced," said Annette Beacher, head of Asia-Pacific research at TD Securities in Singapore.

The New Zealand dollar last traded at $0.8624, up 0.4 percent on the day.

The kiwi also rose against the yen, euro and its Australian counterpart, which suffered heavy losses on Wednesday in the wake of unexpectedly soft inflation data.

Both Antipodean currencies were among some of the biggest movers this week, in contrast to the G3 currencies which stayed in all-too familiar territory.

The safe-haven yen gained a slight lift versus the dollar as Tokyo shares extended losses in the afternoon, after Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said that a trade deal with the United States has not been finalised yet.

Speaking at a joint news conference after a summit meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Abe said Japan and the United States would continue bilateral talks on an Asia-Pacific regional free trade pact.

Mollifying Japan's powerful farmers' lobby and completing a successful trade pact is seen as a key test of whether Abe can deliver the "third arrow" - structural reform - to go with two others that have already been deployed: fiscal and monetary stimulus measures.

The dollar last fetched 102.30 yen, down 0.2 percent.

On Friday, the yen could take its cues from Japanese inflation data. Core consumer prices in Tokyo are expected to have risen the most in 22 years in April, driven by an increase in the country's sales tax.

"Looking at moves in the market over the past few days, it seems as if risk appetite among short-term players has weakened," said Teppei Ino, Singapore-based analyst for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ.

Against this backdrop, the dollar could come under pressure against the yen if the inflation data comes in strong and dampens speculation about additional Bank of Japan monetary easing, Ino said.

The euro held steady at $1.3822, leaving it just a shade firmer on the week.

Traders said the common currency could struggle ahead of a speech by ECB President Mario Draghi, although they conceded that it would be hard for him to sound any more dovish.

His speech comes a day after a survey showed the euro zone private sector started the second quarter on its strongest footing since 2011.

Also, Draghi has already said the bank will ease policy further if the euro keeps strengthening, although he has been vague on the timing. (Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Source:

in.reuters.com

Read More

UPDATE 1-Olympus says being sued by 6 banks for $273 million over 2011 scandal

* Olympus announces fourth lawsuit brought by investors

* Compensation bill relating to 2011 accounting scandal set to swell

* Trust banks seek to sue Olympus before three-year deadline (Adds other cases, context, shares)

By Sophie Knight

TOKYO, April 9 (Reuters) - Olympus Corp on Wednesday said six Japanese trust banks have filed a lawsuit against the endoscope maker seeking 27.9 billion yen ($273 million) for damages relating to a $1.7 billion accounting scandal in 2011.

The six banks, which include State Street Trust and Banking Co Ltd, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp and The Nomura Trust and Banking Co Ltd, are seeking compensation for false financial statements submitted by Olympus in the 11 years to 2011.

Damages from the scandal continue to weigh on Olympus, with the announcement marking the fifth lawsuit it has publicly recognised. The company says that nearly 20 cases have been submitted to courts seeking a total of 85.6 billion yen.

Olympus at its last earnings briefing said it would set aside 17 billion yen ($166.49 million) to settle three of the cases it has publicly recognised, which sought a total of 44 billion yen and were brought by overseas investors and medical equipment maker Terumo Corp.

The other two claims, including the one announced on Thursday, are seeking a total of 41.1 billion yen.

The six Japanese banks acted to meet a three-year deadline for submitting cases against Olympus since the scandal was uncovered, said a public relations officer at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corp. An exact cut-off date has not been decided by the court.

The five other trust banks had no immediate comment.

The six are seeking damages on behalf of investors whose funds they held, according to a representative at one who declined to be named.

Olympus saw its shares and profit dive in 2011 after former Chief Executive Michael Woodford alerted prosecutors and the media to a series of payments designed to cover up investment losses.

The medical equipment maker wrote down the value of several deals made over a decade, including its $2 billion purchase of U.K. firm Gyrus in 2008. Olympus also paid the world's largest advisory fee, equivalent to one-third of the purchase price, in that deal.

Three former Olympus executives, including former chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, were found guilty by a Japanese court in July 2013. They were handed suspended jail sentences while the company was fined 700 million yen ($7 million) for violating securities laws.

Since then the company has swung back to profit, with Sony Corp paying 50 billion yen ($500 million) to become its biggest shareholder last year, when it also raised $1.2 billion in a share issue.

Olympus's shares have also recovered from a trough of 424 yen it scraped in 2011, after they lost around 80 percent of their value. On Thursday its shares were off 1.2 percent at 3,020 yen, slightly outperforming the benchmark index which was down 1.9 percent in afternoon trade.

($1 = 102.1100 Japanese Yen) (Additional reporting by Dominic Lau; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Christopher Cushing)

Source:

www.reuters.com

Read More

Mt. Gox safe from U.S. suits in bankruptcy case

Mark Karpeles, chief executive officer of the bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, gets into a taxi after leaving the Tokyo District Court on Feb. 28. Mt. Gox has filed for protection from creditors in both Japan and the United States. | BLOOMBERG.

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE – Mt. Gox Co., the bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo after millions of dollars’ worth of virtual currency vanished from customer accounts, won a temporary halt to lawsuits it faces in the U.S.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale in Dallas agreed Monday to shield the company’s assets from creditors and halt two suits, both of which are in their early stages. The company will return to court April 1 to seek to extend the protection until the Japanese case is resolved.

The Tokyo-based exchange filed for bankruptcy in Japan last month after losing bitcoins worth about $473 million at the time. The company said in its U.S. filing that almost 750,000 customer bitcoins and 100,000 of its own, about 7 percent of all bitcoins in existence worldwide, were missing and probably stolen.

“The facts known to date indicate that it was caused or related to a flaw in the software algorithm that underlies bitcoin, and ‘hacking’ attacks of one or more persons,” Mt. Gox Chief Executive Officer Mark Karpeles said in a sworn statement filed in the Dallas court.

The exchange was founded in 2011, two years after bitcoins first appeared. Shortly after it opened in July of that year, hackers attempted to break into the system or shut it down with so-called denial of service attacks, according to court papers.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara and the FBI are probing possible criminal violations tied to the shutdown of Mt. Gox, two sources said last month. The Bitcoin Foundation, an advocacy group for the digital currency, said last month that it briefed federal prosecutors about possible theft at Mt. Gox.

A spokeswoman for Bharara, Jennifer Queliz, declined comment on whether a software flaw would effect a federal investigation, citing the office’s policy to neither confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.

Last month, Mt. Gox was sued in federal court in Chicago by an Illinois resident accusing it of misappropriation and fraud. The company also faces a $75 million breach-of-contract suit filed by CoinLab Inc. in Washington state.

Mt. Gox filed for creditor protection Sunday in federal court in Dallas under Chapter 15 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, which can be used to shield assets while the main bankruptcy proceeding is carried out in another country. The petition listed about $37.7 million in assets and $63.9 million in liabilities.

Jed MacCaleb, who built the initial Mt. Gox software, owns 12 percent of the company. Tibanne Co., a Japanese company, owns the rest, court documents show.

News Source: www.japantimes.co.jp

Read More