The levels this morning are little changed from where we left off Monday in North America with EUR/USD at 1.2735 from around 1.2750 and USD/JPY at 97.85 pretty much unchanged. Well, what a difference a day makes, 24 little hours (I think that’s how the song goes.) Yesterday there was palpable optimism in the air, but this morning that has almost totally evaporated with Asian stockmarkets all posting losses overnight. There was a raft of disappointing news out. The National Australia Bank business confidence survey plummeted to -29 in October (an all-time low) from -8 in September. Business conditions index went to -11 from -1. Meanwhile in Japan, the number of corporate defaults accelerated in October, up 13.4% year on year. Bankruptcies rose 1.49% month on month and 34.4% year on year in September, with the total debt from bankruptcies JPY1.01 trillion, exceeding the JPY 1.0 trillion level for the first time in six years. The Japanese Economic and Social Research Eco-Watchers survey showed the outlook for business fell to 25.2 in October compared to 32.1 in September, the seventh consecutive monthly decline.