In relation to yesterdays gigantic moves made in NY due to the rumor that the US government may suspend a key accounting rule in the new stimulus plan, today's moves ahead of tomorrow's US employment number were nominal at best. Traders stood on the sidelines ahead of the US Unemployment data due at 13:30 GMT which looks to show that the US lost another 500,000 jobs in January, bringing the unemployment rate to 7.5%. The EUR/USD pair lost some steam today, hitting a low of 1.2761 after being at 1.2880 only hours earlier in NY. The Euro was about 30 pips lower than the Asia open, in the 1.2780 ballpark as the session came to a close. Much of the EUR/USD action was cuffed to the EUR/JPY moves which were explosive over the past day as it made moves from 114.50ish to just over 118.50 in the NY prior to lunch, and subsequently slid back down to trade between 115.95 and 116.95 for the Asia session. Many people feel that the ECB's failure to cut rates yesterday is a move that may come back to haunt them. As well, the Euro must continue to bear the burden of the increasingly troubled economies of Eastern Europe and Russia.
USD/JPY spent the session strolling along in a less than 60 point range between 90.80 and 91.30, as all eyes were on the US data due Friday. Things to look for later in the European session include a slew of data from the UK including PPI and Industrial Production, however, it can not be overstated that the big show to end the week is the US employment data and revision data from December. Once the weekend is over, barring any catastrophe, the next focus of the FX market will be the probable unveiling of the Obama rescue plan next week. Have a nice weekend.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 2/6/2009 | 6:45 | SZ | Unemployment Rate | JAN | 3.00% | 3.20% |
| 2/6/2009 | 6:45 | SZ | Unemployment Rate (sa) | JAN | 2.80% | 2.90% |
| 2/6/2009 | 7:45 | FR | Trade Balance (Euros) | DEC | -6.2B | -5.9B |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Input NSA (MoM) | JAN | -2.00% | 0.50% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Input NSA (YoY) | JAN | 4.30% | 2.00% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Output n.s.a. (MoM) | JAN | 0.00% | -0.10% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Output n.s.a. (YoY) | JAN | 4.70% | 3.40% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Output Core NSA (MoM) | JAN | 0.20% | 0.10% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | PPI Output Core NSA (YoY) | JAN | 5.00% | 3.80% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Industrial Production (MoM) | DEC | -2.30% | -1.20% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Industrial Production (YoY) | DEC | -6.90% | -7.80% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Manufacturing Production (MoM) | DEC | -2.90% | -1.40% |
| 2/6/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Manufacturing Production (YoY) | DEC | -7.40% | -8.50% |
| 2/6/2009 | 11:00 | GE | Industrial Prod. YoY (nsa wda) | DEC | -6.40% | -9.60% |
| 2/6/2009 | 11:00 | GE | Industrial Production MoM (sa) | DEC | -3.10% | -2.50% |
