Asian session review: Euro falls versus Dollar, Yen after Moody's cuts ratings on Spanish banks

Euro falls versus dollar, yen after Moody's cuts ratings on Spanish banks.
Focus is still on Portugual and now there is an increased risk of S&P & Fitch downgrading Portugual's sovereign rating following the resignation of Prime Minister Jose Socrates last night after rejection of new austerity measures by opposition parties.
Meanwhile, ECB's Stark, writing in WSJ, says recent events in Japan, Mid-East need to be considered by ECB, but cannot expect a knee-jerk reaction to be easing the monetary policy to all events. Stark also noted the ECB cannot keep interest rates too low for too long. He adds observers correctly read the ECB's dropping of "rates appropriate".
Canada’s dollar fluctuated as crude oil, the nation’s biggest export, reached a two-week high.

EUR/USD printed session high on $1.414 before retreated to strong support at $1.4050. Rate's losses were capped here by bids, that helped the rate to recover to $1.4075.
GBP/USD fell from $1.6264 to the lows below the figure.
USD/JPY holds within the Y80.70/Y81.10 range.

UK' retail sales is due to come at 09:30 GMT. Madian forecast is for 1.9% rise after -0.5% month earlier.
Jubless claims is scheduled to release at 12:30 GMT.
The focus will be on Durable goods orders at 12:30 GMT. Analysts predict orders rose 3.2% in Feb after +1.0% in Jan.