Not too much change overnight in Asia. The JPY is a little firmer, USD/JPY down at 97.20 having closed in North America Thursday around 97.90, while EUR/JPY has slipped to 123.80 from around 125.00. This morning in Europe German inflation for October came in line with preliminary estimates, contracting 0.2% month on month compared to the -0.1% in September and showing a 2.4% rise year on year, down from the 2.9% gain in September. As reported by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) “The marked downtrend of the inflation rate (in recent months, since the August 2008 peak) is mainly due to the current price decrease for mineral oil products, which is probably caused in particular by declining world market prices of crude oil.”