• US weekly jobless claims fall 37,000 to 404,000
  • Germany: No Greek restructuring plan being discussed
  • Ifo head Sinn: Greece can’t repay its debts; EU restructuring not the answer
  • Philly Fed index dips to 19.3 in January from 20.8 in December; slightly weaker than expected but manufacturing still expanding
  • US existing home sales rise 12.3% in December; much stronger than expected
  • Conference Board’s Index of economic leading indicators rises 1% in December; stronger than expected
  • SNB’s Hildebrand: Economy still firm but exporters hurt by strong franc
  • Fitch: More EU/IMF bailouts ahead for euro zone; systemic crisis reflects concerns of Euro viability as well as country-specific concerns
  • Irish PM Cowen calls for election; Scheduled for March 11
  • S&P 500 falls 0.1%; recoups 1% loss
  • US 10-year note yields rise 10 bp to 3.44%
  • Commodity prices slip; gold falls $27 to $1345, oil $2 to 88.86

An extremely choppy session in NY today as EUR/USD Gyrated between 1.3525 at the open on narrower yield spreads between Spain, Portugal and the like and the German benchmark and 1.3396 lows on heavy selling of commodities and stocks which saw risk-assets slip across the board. Strong US data contributed to the dollar recovery as well.

While there was heavy interest on both sides of the market today, the interest seemed to come in waves. The short-term charts look like a roller-coaster, ending right back where we started, as far as EUR/USD is concerned. We end at 1.3480…

EUR/GBP saw a very heavy and very clumsily handled buy order out of London at mid-morning. EUR/USD rallied while cable tumbled as low as 1.5840/45 intraday.The buying was rumored to be on behalf of the UK government, to fund their portion of the Irish bailout. Pension fund buying was rumored as well.

EUR/CHF and EUR/JPY were in demand as well, though the movements were less identifiable. Narrower bond spreads as well as soaring German yields supported the single currency across the board.

AUD/USD suffered intraday as commodity markets were hard hit following the Chinese data overnight. Copper was particularly hard hit and looks it may be in the midst of a medium-term topping process. EUR/AUD short-covering was also a factor, taking the cross up to test trendline resistance in place since the spring of 2010. Stops are rumored on a break below the solid support zone around 0.9800.

USD/JPY got a double-barreled boost from Japanese debt fears after comments from Japanese officials overnight and a move to the topside in US yields. We rallied as high as 83.13 on short-covering. Japanese names were spotted taking profits during the NY session above the 83.00 level.

Markets were very thin in the US afternoon and could remains in Asia overnight.