FOREX INTRADAY SNAPSHOT

EUR/USD
The bounce off support at 1.4325 brings the focus onto the 1.4540/50 resistance area. The push into fresh three-week highs above 1.4449 recovery strengthens the 1.4325 higher low, and a bear channel resistance line at 1.4550 this week is within striking distance, protecting 1.4606. Only a setback below 1.4429 would concern EUR bulls and expose the 1.4325 higher low.

GBP/USD
The push above 1.6094 creates scope for further gains to the June 22 lower high at 1.6262. This week's lows at 1.5911 have become a potential near-term bear failure, meaning the origin of that bear wave at 1.6262 will become the focus of attention, having neutralised the GBP bear trend for now. Only a reversal below 1.5960 would bring the focus back onto the 1.5911 lows.

USD/JPY
Upgrades the setback off 81.27 to expose projected support at 80.20. The push below 80.55 has left Tuesday's high at 81.27 stranded, and a break below 80.20 would leave 81.27 as a potential bull failure high, exposing the June 22 higher low at 80.01. Keeping 80.20 intact would prompt a recovery back to the 80.66 area, but only above there would stabilise the falling USD.

AUD/USD
The push above 1.0717 puts AUD bulls in control, and paves the way for more gains to the important June 3 lower high at 1.0776. A push above 1.0776 is required to confirm Monday's 1.0391 low as a bear failure, and create room another wave of AUD bull pressure towards the May 11 reaction high at 1.0890. Congestion between 1.0606 and 1.0645 will look to cushion corrective weakness, but downside risk is limited.

FOREX FOCUS
Greece's austerity vote will soon look like nothing more than a minor distraction. With debt financing costs still rising and the European Central Bank likely to continue raising interest rates next week, the risk of a payment default by Greece or another peripheral euro-zone country will continue to increase. Pitched battles on the streets of Athens and the narrowest of votes in the Greek parliament may have grabbed headlines in recent days as the country struggles to convince the world that it is serious about repaying its debts. However, the scale of the debt problem engulfing the euro zone continues to grow, with the international investor community still voting with its feet. More and more are walking away or demanding either higher returns or more costly insurance premiums for holding euro-zone debt. While the market's focus has been on Greece, with that country's own yield spreads and credit default swaps narrowing on hopes that Greek members of parliament would see sense, the spreads and prices of other peripherals such as Portugal and Ireland have continued to widen. And there is little reason why that widening should stop. For a start there is little assurance that plans to roll over Greek debt are going to be successful. On paper, proposals for a voluntary negotiation of the terms and maturities, like those of the so-called Brady bonds for Latin American debtors in the 1980s, may look promising. But in practice the whole exercise looks doomed with many, including the ECB's executive board member Juergen Stark, warning this would still be a de facto default by Greece. And a de facto default by Greece means one thing: credit rating agencies, as at least one has promised already, will start downgrading peripheral euro-zone debtors in general.

EUROPE
In European trading hours Thursday, the dollar fell against the yen, weighed down by a stronger euro and partially on selling by Japanese exporters for the end-of-the-month closing of books, dealers said. The euro was stronger against the dollar, up at $1.4484. However, although the situation in Greece and prospects of an imminent rate hike by the ECB helped the euro, Germany's jobless data caused the single currency to pare gains.

ASIA
The euro rose above $1.4500 to a three-week high in Asia Thursday after the Greek parliament's passage Wednesday of new austerity measures appeared to make a near-term default unlikely. Buying by overseas investors led the common currency higher, with stop-loss buying orders around $1.4450 accelerating the gains. The euro touched $1.4519, its highest since June 10. Expectations for the European Central Bank to raise interest rates at a meeting next Thursday are also helping the euro, dealers said. Assuming Greece passes legislation later in the global day to implement the austerity bills, the euro could trend higher in the coming sessions, they said. Dai Sato, a senior vice president of the foreign exchange division of Mizuho Corporate Bank, said the euro could climb as high as $1.4700 in the near term. The possibility that Greece will avoid default soon is "making people optimistic in the near term, although people are pessimistic (about the Greek situation) over the longer term," Sato said. Gains in Chinese and other regional share markets also buoyed sentiment toward risk-sensitive currencies such as the euro, dealers said. Other gainers included the New Zealand dollar, which marked a fresh post-float high against the dollar at $0.8313.

WORLD
Investors bid up the euro Wednesday in New York after Greek lawmakers ignored violent protests in the streets and passed an austerity bill that kept alive a second round of bailout funding from European authorities. The euro traded above $1.4400 to two-week highs versus the dollar as that vote reduced the chances of an imminent Greece debt default. The focus now shifts to a vote Thursday to put the measures in motion and to a Sunday meeting of euro-zone finance ministers to plan the second bailout. But investors seemed to be encouraged by European officials' signals on this meeting as well. Greece's approval of new austerity measures is an important step for the country and for the stability of the euro as a whole, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin. "We may see a little bit more of this rally" with the euro following the first Greece vote, said Scott Ainsbury, who helps manage about $8.5 billion in currency at New York-based hedge fund FX Concepts. The vote at least seemed to cap the Greece problem for now. But he cautioned against extrapolating too much from Wednesday's common currency move.