The yen last trade to 117.70 levels per dollar

Good Morning,

- Japan’s yen pared its biggest five-week loss since 1995 as Finance Minister Taro Aso said its decline has been too fast. Most Asian stocks fell, with the regional index headed to its biggest weekly retreat since mid-October. The yen last trade to 117.70 levels per dollar, paring its loss since Oct. 17 to about 9 percent.

- The yen rose sharply after Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso said the currency's fall over the past week was too rapid, in one of the strongest warnings against a weak yen since Japan started its aggressive monetary stimulus two years ago.

- The Swiss National Bank stands ready to defend its cap on the franc by buying unlimited quantities of euros or taking other, undisclosed steps, a central bank board member said on Thursday. The franc-euro exchange rate is hovering close to the 1.20 per euro floor set by the Swiss central bank in 2011, when the currency's strength was squeezing exporters and threatening deflation. "The SNB will continue to enforce the minimum exchange rate with the utmost determination," SNB board member Fritz Zurbruegg said.

- JP Morgan on EUR/USD: A break above 1.2546 (minor 76.4 %) in EUR/USD didn’t trigger much follow-up yet, but increased the risk of running into a broader short-covering rally, notes JP Morgan. "The defense of 1.2441 (minor 76.4 %) and yesterday’s break above 1.2546 (minor 76.4 %) have increased the risk of running into a broader recovery to 1.2871/88 (int. 38.2 %/pivot) a little more," JPM projects. In order to receive confirming evidence for such a short covering rally, according to JPM, it would take additional breaks above 1.2584 and 1.2614 (daily trend/pivot). "A failure to clear these would still leave the market at risk of extending the broader downtrend straight away to 1.2318/1.2260 (Fib's) and to1.2223 (weekly trend)," JPM argues.

- Credit Agricole on USD/JPY: In our latest FX Monthly Cease-fire broken we revised our JPY forecasts lower due to stronger than expected political and monetary policy pressures in Japan. However with the market already at an extreme short JPY position, we think a circuit-breaker could be tripped this week seeing at least a short-term USD/JPY correction towards 116.50. While the magnitude of such a correction may seem small given the pace of recent USD/JPY gains, we note many buyers are unlikely to wait too long to add to positions given uncertainty surrounding December the elections. As such after this correction, JPY selling should resume seeing USD/JPY rise to our end-of-year 118.0 target. Note also that while a government debt downgrade remains risk, any rating agency action is unlikely to come before the elections.

- Figures out of the US on Thursday was generally upbeat, led by a stunning jump in the Philadelphia Fed survey of manufacturing which soared to its highest since 1993. Inflation also surprised on the upside, with the core consumer price index nudging up to 1.8 percent for the year. That should be a welcome development for many at the Federal Reserve who have been worried that inflation could stay too low for too long.

- To understand just how contentious next week’s OPEC meeting will be, take a look at the confusion it’s created among professionals paid to predict the outcome. The 20 analysts surveyed this week by Bloomberg are perfectly divided, with half forecasting the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will cut supply on Nov. 27 in Vienna to stem a plunge in prices while the other half expect no change. In the seven years since the surveys began, it’s the first time participants were evenly split. The only episode that created a similar debate was the OPEC meeting in late 2007, when crude was soaring to a record.

- Watch today: European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi and Bundesbank head Jens Weidmann are both due to speak at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt.

Have a nice Weekend !