The AUD/USD got the blowtorch treatment in Asia today. The pair was under pressure from it s0.8265 open but held on to 0.8180 until the last hour when AUD/JPY selling (as Sean pointed out) took straight AUD/USD down to 0.8103.
It was a very nervous session in Asia with the market getting off on the wrong foot after Wall Street lost 1% in the last 15 minutes of official trading. US futures then fell another 1% which weighed on the so-called risk assets. Then we got the Kim jong-il moving to a combat setting headline which set everything off all again. The KRW and the Kospi were both down 4% at one stage before recovering modestly.
Overall there is little doubt that stock markets are under attack from hedge funds. They smell blood so watch out today.
