More dents seem to be appearing in the armor of the Yen as a safe-haven as the Japanese currency hit a three month low against the US Dollar heading into data this week that could show that the recession there is getting worse. After a relatively stable day in NY, USD/JPY wasted no time in Asian trading, erasing an early 94.26 low and blasting off to a high just under 95.35 as the trading day wound down. Supposed resistance at the 95.00 level was nonexistent, and stop losses helped push the pair easily above the 95 big figure. EUR/JPY's move was dynamic as well, after dipping below 119.40 briefly, the pair hit its apex near 121.50 prior to the open in Europe. Asian stocks were lower across the board, with the Nikkei lower by almost 1.5%. To add to the woes in Japan, according to a Japanese newspaper article, the Prime Ministers approval rating hit a low of 11.4%. It's pretty safe to say that when almost nine out of ten people disapprove of you, you might be hard pressed to find someone to chat with at that cocktail party. In summation, the picture in Japan has turned pretty bleak, but then again if you turn on the news for a few minutes every day you might be numb to it all by now.
Finally, EUR/USD finally hit bottom at 1.2662 after falling off the 1.2991 cliff almost 24 hours ago. The Euro bounced to hit 1.2745 as many looked to the upcoming US report that will likely show that home prices fell yet again in America. As well the trading in the Euro looks to be thinned ahead of the German IFO data due later at 9:00 GMT.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| 2/24/2009 | 7:45 | FR | Consumer Spending (MoM) | JAN | -0.90% | 0.30% |
| 2/24/2009 | 7:45 | FR | Consumer Spending (YoY) | JAN | -1.70% | 0.30% |
| 2/24/2009 | 7:45 | FR | Housing Starts 3M YOY% Change | JAN | -16.00% | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 7:45 | FR | Housing Permits 3M YoY% Change | JAN | -11.10% | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 7:50 | FR | Consumer Confidence Indicator | FEB | -41 | -42 |
| 2/24/2009 | 8:15 | SZ | Employment Level | 4Q | 3.956M | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 8:15 | SZ | Employment Level (YoY) | 4Q | 2.00% | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | SZ | UBS Consumption Indicator | JAN | 1.15 | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | GE | IFO - Business Climate | FEB | 83 | 83 |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | GE | IFO - Current Assessment | FEB | 86.8 | 84.9 |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | GE | IFO - Expectations | FEB | 79.4 | 81.1 |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | EC | ECB Euro-Zone Current Account SA | DEC | -16.0B | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:00 | EC | Euro-Zone Current Account nsa | DEC | -13.9B | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Total Business Investment(QoQ) | 4Q P | -1.30% | -4.20% |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:30 | UK | Total Business Investment(YoY) | 4Q P | -0.10% | -5.50% |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:30 | UK | BBA Loans for House Purchase | JAN | 22051 | - - |
| 2/24/2009 | 9:40 | UK | Bank of England's Sentance to make speech | 24-Feb | ||
| 2/24/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Industrial New Orders SA MoM | DEC | -4.50% | -4.90% |
| 2/24/2009 | 10:00 | EC | Industrial New Orders YoY | DEC | -26.20% | -21.70% |
| 2/24/2009 | 11:00 | UK | U.K. CBI Quaterly Distributive Trades | 27-Feb |
