Plenty of volatility despite the fact that it was a summer Friday today.

New York took EUR/USD up right from the get-go this morning, reaching 1.3008 with options desks among the heaviest buyers. Clearly their books were set-up for a flat to lower euro, resulting in massive spot buying to hedge options that began the week deeply out of the money only to end up in the money by the end of the week.

The market spent rather little time above 1.3000, however. A heavy selloff on Wall Street (which accelerated after the slump in consumer sentiment) sent intraday longs scrambling for the safety of the sidelines. EUR/USD eased as low as 1.2915 before garnering support from the 100-day moving average.

EUR/JPY succumbed to risk aversion with the JPY side of the trade the prime focus. The cross slid to 111.54 before stabilizing.

USD/JPY crumbled from the US open as stops perched just below the old 86.95 levels before dealers could stir their coffee. We stabilized for a time around 86.50/55 before finally falling to 86.27 shortly after the consumer sentiment figures. We managed an afternoon bounce to the 86.85 as dealers contemplated potential reaction to the strong JPY from Tokyo come Monday. 86.95/00 is important resistance near-term. Stops are clustered in the 87.10 area.

GBP was tarnished (sterling tarnished, get it?) , with US sellers of the pound seen against the dollar, EUR and JPY today. The failure of Cable to surmount the 1.5500/25 region was cause for disappointment while the putrid action in the US equity market prompted GBP/JPY positions to be dumped. Cable fell as low as 1.5280 before stabilizing.

Commodity currencies? Don’t ask.

In a week where the euro could do no wrong, the commodity currencies could do little right. USD/CAD ends at 1.0540 and AUD/USD just below 0.8700.