Currency trading has been pretty active overnight. A main feature has been accelerated weakness in the Japanese Yen. The move comes with risk sentiment improving in the wake of news Citibank is in talks with federal regulators for the U.S. government to increase its’ stake in the bank to as much as 40%. The JPY is also being underminned by growing concerns surrounding the parlous state of Japans’ economy and the uncertain political backdrop which are highlighted in a Sunday Times piece labelled “Japan falls into spiral of despair.” USD/JPY presently sits up 94.80 and EUR/JPY up at 121.65.
Things on the forex trading news front a little quiet today. At 13:00 GMT we have EU’s Nowotny speaking in Slovakia on the extension of the euro-zone. Then at 13:30 GMT we have Canadian retail sales for December expected -2.7% month on month. Then there’s a gap till 15.30 GMT when we have US Dallas Fed manufacturing activity for February which is expected to show a -50.0% read.
Later at 17:40 GMT Fed’s Lockhart speaks on the US economy and finally at 23:00 GMT we have Fed’s Fisher speaking on the financial crisis.
