The EUR/USD opened in Asia at 1.3900 and initially touched the session high at 1.3968 as a reaction to the collapse in the USD/JPY and the JPY crosses. USD/JPY and the whole JPY complex plunged in the twilight zone between the New York close and the Sydney-Tokyo open on fresh jitters regarding Japan and expectations of massive Japanese repatriation to funds costs associated with the earthquake. Sterling closed in NY at 1.6025 this morning before the allure of massive option related stops in USD/JPY below previous record lows at 79.75, mixed with thin market conditions saw the fireworks begin. USD/JPY traded as low as 76.25 in under half an hour with cable spiking to session highs of 1.6059, trading sideways in a 1.5990/52 in the hour that followed before remaining confined to a 1.5983/23 range.
8:15 GMT time the country is to publish official data on industrial production forecasted at 4.7% better than the previous data recorded at 1.8%.
8:30 GMT time Swiss National Bank is to announce its three-month Libor rate and publish its rate statement, which offers clues on the outcome of future rate decisions.
12:30 GMT time the U.S. is to publish official data on initial jobless claims forecasted at 388k slightly better than last figures. The country is also to publish government data on consumer price inflation with the estimated results of 0.1%.
Negative day for Equities in US, we see Dow at 11,613 by -2.04%, Nasdaq dawn to 2,617 by -1.89%, S&P 500 also dawn to 1,257 by -1.95%. In Europe we saw FTSE 100 negative 5.598 by -97 points. The same in Asia, Nikkei was up at 8.963 by -1.44%, Hang Seng dawn by -389 points at 22.312 and Shanghai trading negative at 3.042 by -0.87%.
Sources: Various