With safe-haven trading back in public favor, the Yen made gains against the Dollar and Euro as traders looked to flee risk while the Nikkei sank due to general disappointment over the recent stimulus package in the USA. USD/JPY started the session close to the 90.40 high and gradually made its way lower as the day progressed, eventually hitting 89.90 before a slight bounce brought the pair back above the figure prior to the Europe open.
EUR/JPY as well opened up near highs of 116.60 and subsequently dropped to lows close to 115.90 before ending the session close to 116.20.
The Aussie Dollar had a pretty eventful ride today as employment actually rose 1.2K for January, beating the -18K expected, pushing AUD/USD from lows of 0.6515ish to over 0.6600 on the bullish news. The bulls turned to bears not long afterward as the Australian Senate voted down a AUD $41.5Billion stimulus package. The vote ended in a tie of 35-35 which signals defeat. The plan will get one more shot on Friday, and if defeated once again will be considered dead.
The Euro traded between 1.2860 and 1.2943 all session but ended right near where it started, at the 1.2900 figure. Strangely the EUR/USD did not crumble as a UK paper released a story stating that European Banks were currently sitting on about $24 Trillion worth of toxic assets. Let's see how the folks in Europe react when sipping the morning coffee while reading the business section.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 2/12/2009 | 6:45 | SZ | SECO Consumer Climate | JAN | -27 | -36 |
| 2/12/2009 | 8:00 | BE | ECB's Bini Smaghi Speaks in Brussels | 12-Feb | ||
| 2/12/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Euro-Zone Ind. Prod. sa (MoM) | DEC | -1.60% | -2.50% |
| 2/12/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Euro-Zone Ind. Prod. wda (YoY) | DEC | -7.70% | -9.50% |
