Asia Session

The US Dollar starts the week off with some strength, as risk appetite falters and Russia does an about face and comes out in support of the Greenback. The EUR/USD opened the week lower and continued on that lower trajectory today as it fell from just over a 1.4000 high to just near 1.3945 as reports emerged that Germany may still be in the thick of the credit crisis. Add to this the fact that Asian stocks were lower across the board, thus forcing the hands of traders who looked to take some risk off the table. And finally, in a turnaround from last week's statement by his superior decrying the Greenback as the global currency of choice, Russian Finance Minister Alexi Kudrin stated that the Buck is second to none as the world's reserve currency. Due to all the above reasons and some profit taking thrown in the mix, GBP/USD was sold as well, with the pair falling from 1.64440 to 1.63590 going into London.

USD/JPY opened in the favor of the dollar and subsequently dropped to 98.10 before beginning its trek back higher through 98.45, but was still about 10 pips off of the pairs earlier high as of this writing. The soft equities also sent the EUR/JPY lower as traders pulled back some risk, pulling the pair from 137.81 highs to current lows of just a touch over the 137.00 figure. Other yen crosses followed, with AUD/JPY slipping almost a big figure from just over 80.00 to just a few pips over 79.00. Speaking of the Aussie, the AUD/USD headed south as oil prices continued to fall, the pair sinking a solid 50 pips from its open near 0.8090. NZD/USD suffered far worse than the Aussie, opening almost 50 pips worse than the Friday close and continuing lower to a 0.6360 session low. As can be expected USD/CAD and USD/CHF both made nice gains for the day to the tune of about 50 pips a piece. There is no significant data out in the London session.....

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected