After a long week of being battered and bruised, the Yen got up off the canvas today to fight another round. With many investors believing that the recent Yen depreciation was excessive, and with end of the month squaring coming into play, the oversold Yen was bought back across the board. USD/JPY cascaded lower in the Asia session from a high near 98.60, the pair landed at a 98.32 low before a bounce sent it about 40 pips higher going into London. Japanese unemployment came in better than expected and with the Nikkei up and the talk of more stimulus and possible government buying of stocks today seemed a little less gloomy than usual. With the Yen being bought across the board, the crosses were all lower as expected, with the EUR/JPY dropping from near 125.50 to just under 123.70, GBP/JPY dropping from near 141.07 to near 138.80, and AUD/JPY dropping from 63.80 territory to the 62.65 vicinity.
With the Yen being bought on the crosses, the US Dollar was supported against the other majors, such as EUR/USD, where the pair hit a 1.2688 bottom before gaining some ground to the 1.2750 levels in thin trading. In GBP/USD, after tapping a low of 1.4250, the pair managed to grid up about 40 or so pips to the 90 area. AUD/USD fell early on the cross selling, getting as low as 0.6435 before some strength on the private sector credit data which was better than expected. Last but certainly not least, Spot Gold was soft this session, dropping from $947.42 per oz to $936.00 per oz at its cheapest point before bouncing back to just over $941.00 per oz at the sessions close.
To close out the week, be alert to the fact that in the European session we have Euro Zone CPI and Unemployment, both at 10:00GMT. Have a good weekend.
Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):
| Time | Expected | Previous |
| 10:00GMT Euro Zone CPI (YoY) | 1.10% | 1.10% |
| 10:00GMT Euro Zone Core CPI (YoY) | 1.80% | 1.80% |
| 10:00GMT Euro Zone Unemployment Rate | 8.10% | 8.00% |
| 13:30GMT Canadian Current Account | -5.5Bil | 5.6Bil |
