Risk appetite came screaming back into the markets today as higher stocks and surging crude oil prices punished the Dollar and the Yen as the warm rays of optimism helped nurture the so called ''green shoots'' of recovery we keep hearing about. As markets show increased signs of thawing with higher equities and oil as well as greater consumer confidence, traders become more convinced of economic recovery and they tend to flock to higher yielding ''riskier'' currencies as they flee the safer, lower yielding Yen and Greenback.
This is the script that was played out today in Asia, as the dollar lost ground to all major currencies and the Yen was sold early against all but the Dollar.

The single European currency continued to drive higher in Asia, as the EUR/USD left its early 1.4071 lows behind as it made its way to highs just a touch over 1.4130. GBP/USD rose to 1.6658, just 5 pips short of posting a high not seen since late October of 2008.
With oil hitting an eight month high of over $73 per barrel, those currencies linked to such commodities had solid moves today as well. In a move that has covered 18 big figures since March of this year, AUD/USD continued to impress, adding 40 pips to that total after retracing slightly from a high near 0.8122. NZD/USD followed suite with similar gains to just near 0.6540 helping both currencies post their finest quarter gains since the mid 1980's. Of interest, AUD/USD has had a 77% correlation over the past month with commodities.

USD/JPY had an early pop over 96.30, on what some believed was a large amount of foreign asset buying by some very large Japanese mutual funds that have just been launched. The momentum was short lived as the pair looked to enter the London morning close to session lows of 95.75. EUR/JPY got above 135.90, but couldn't maintain that level, sinking below the 135.00 figure late in the day. Japan will release its quarterly Tankan Survey tomorrow which should help to maintain investor optimism with data expected to show that conditions are not as dire as last quarter.

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session) prior expected

6/30/20093-JulUK Nat'wide House prices sa (MoM) JUN 1.20%-0.50%
6/30/20093-JulUK Nat'wide House prices nsa(YoY) JUN -11.30%-10.80%
6/30/20096:45FR Producer Prices (MoM) MAY -0.90%-0.20%
6/30/20096:45FR Producer Prices (YoY) MAY -6.40%- -
6/30/20097:55GE Unemployment Change (000's) JUN 1K 45K
6/30/20097:55GE Unemployment Rate (s.a) JUN 8.20%8.30%
6/30/20098:30UK GDP (QoQ) 1Q F -1.90%-2.10%
6/30/20098:30UK GDP (YoY) 1Q F -4.10%-4.30%
6/30/20098:30UK Current Account (BP) 1Q -7.6B -6.7B
6/30/20098:30UK Total Business Investment(QoQ) 1Q F -5.50%-5.50%
6/30/20098:30UK Total Business Investment(YoY) 1Q F -6.80%-6.80%
6/30/20099:00EC Euro-Zone CPI Estimate (YoY) JUN 0.00%-0.20%
6/30/20099:30UK Bank of England's Tucker to Make Speech 30-Jun