Tuesday gold increased again to above $1,500 an ounce in Europe regaining its losses in line with oil prices as hopes that Greece's debt crisis may be contained tempered risk aversion. Gold is closely linked to foreign exchange moves, as it is often traded as a currency. Spot gold was bid at $1,501.39 an ounce at 1108 GMT, against $1,496.20 late in New York on Monday. U.S. gold futures for August delivery GCv1 rose $5.90 an ounce to $1,502.30.

Lowering the value of the US dollar is not what the US Federal Reserve is pursuing in its ultra-easy monetary policy according to the statement made by the Federal Reserve Bank President Sandra Pianalto. "We don't target or try to manipulate the value of our currency; we focus on our two objectives of price stability and maximum employment," she said in response to audience questions at an Oberlin College event.  

As the global economic recovery is declining the yen and the dollar appreciated against their counterparts. The yen rose to a two weeks high against euro and strengthened versus all 16 major counterparts after the Federal Reserve said the U.S. recovery will be slower than expected. The yen climbed to 111.77 per euro at 6:40 a.m. in London from 112.58 in New York yesterday, after rising to 111.68, the strongest since July 23. The dollar gained to $1.3110 per euro from $1.3177, and advanced 0.2 percent to $1.5817 per pound. The yen advanced to 85.25 per dollar from 85.44.

China's foreign-exchange policy risks "unwinding" some of the progress made in reducing global trade imbalances during the financial crisis, the U.S. Treasury said Thursday in its latest report on foreign-exchange trading.   But the department repeated its previous finding that China was not formally manipulating its currency. 

 A provider of ecommerce solutions and third party online payments 2Checkout.com announced the addition of five new purchase currencies and one remittance currency to its lists of payment options for international customers.

The popular Latin American social networking platform www.sonico.com offers its over 40 million registered users a safe and fun environment to connect and stay in touch with real-life friends, colleagues, and family. The partnership with GlobalCollect enables Sonico to process international online credit card payments via Visa, MasterCard, and American Express for its premium subscription services.

On Friday gold was softer near $975 as traders became concerned about the possible data on employment. As it was reported on Thursday gold rose around 2% after Goldman Sachs raised its forecast for oil prices at the end of 2009 to $85 a barrel from $65, triggering inflation-hedge buying of gold."I think there's a sense of caution in the market as gold nears the $1,000 mark," said Shuji Sugata, a manager at Mitsubishi Corp Futures & Securities in Tokyo.

On Friday the yen dropped heading for a third weekly loss against the euro, as Asian stocks advanced on speculation the worst of the financial crisis is over, spurring demand for higher-yielding assets.The yen weakened against 11 of the 16 major currencies before a U.S. report today that may show employers cut fewer jobs last month, damping demand for the relative safety of Japan’s currency.

Yesterday an online payment services provider PayPal announced that it appointed Farhad Irani as a new manager for its Asia-Pacific business. Irani will report to the company's Senior Vice-President (global market), Phillipp Justus and will be responsible for managing PayPal's domestic and cross-border business across Asia-Pacific according to the company statement.

A leading Asian provider of electronic payment services, solutions and technologies AsiaPay Ltd established a cooperation agreement with ChinaPay to allow its merchants in Asia to accept online real time payments from Chinese customers. Chinese shoppers in turn will be able to make purchases at merchants across Asia in their own currency by using their payment accounts in China.

On Monday JPY fell after the dismal Japanese economic data intensified worries about the severity of the downturn facing the country. Japan swung to its first current account deficit in 13 years in January as the global economic decline crushed export demand and revenue from overseas investment. According to the specialists’ opinion, the JPY is likely to remain weak since the Japanese authorities have indicated that they want the currency to weaken.

Last week the USD reached critical resistance. The US dollar index, an average of the greenback’s value against six top currencies, has now back to challenge key support above 86.40: the intersection of a principal level, acted frequently as near-term support/resistance, and a rising trend line from December’s lows. As a negative market reaction to US policy efforts and the an sinister G7 summit sparked a sell-off in risky assets, US Dollar have rallied convincingly 

The latest repots from Turkey reveal that the state central bank is likely to cut the benchmark interest rate by at least half a percentage point this week. It is for the fourth time the bank reduces the rate in a spasmodic move to stay afloat in the downturn environment. The experts expect the borrowing rate to reduce to 12.5% with the forecasts ranging as high as a full-point cut.

Despite some variable price action USD continues to strengthen on a balance. Though currencies are unlikely to be on the agenda, traders expect range trading to continue into the G-7. EUR/USD was stronger than many expected on the day, making it easy to squeeze shorts and ignore more rates cut calls from ECB's Papademos and a negative outlook from ECB's Liikanen.

Subscribers of the M-Cube Ryanair Prepaid Programme in the UK and Ireland can now perform bank transactions through their mobile phones.  The new service launched by M-Cube allows subscribers with Java and WMA enabled phones to check balances, request mini-statements of recent transactions, report lost cards, and carry out foreign currency transfers. Also, the cardholders can enjoy a live chat or transfer between different accounts.