USDJPY improves to fresh session highs...>

DOLLAR-YEN: USDJPY improves to fresh session highs of Y109.68 in early NY. The

Y109.70/75 area produced a number of hourly highs yesterday, with a break here

needed to challenge Y110.00/05 which holds the 38.2% fibo of the May range and

May 10 hourly highs. 

- US data at the bottom of the hour from Jobless Claims, Housing Starts &

Building Permits. The level of initial jobless claims is expected to fall by

8,000 to 220,000 in the May 11 week after declining by only 2,000 to 228,000 in

the previous week. A surge in claims in NY in the previous week is likely to be

reversed in the coming week.

- The pace of housing starts is expected to rebound to a 1.200 million pace in

April after falling further to 1.139 million in March, while building permits

are expected to slip to a 1.280 million pace from the 1.288 million revised

March's pace. Unadjusted starts were down 13.0% from a year earlier in March, a

further sign that home building has stagnated.