2009 kicked off in earnest today and, on balance, risk is slowly coming back into vogue. The JPY weakened against the commodity currencies, Treasury yields rose, and stocks gave back only a small fraction of recent signficant gains. Prospects for an ECB cut on January 15 dominated the early part of the session while risk-resumption dominated US trade. The dollar fared well accept versus the likes of AUD, CAD and NZD who’s strength dealers hope is a harbinger of an economic recovery early in the second half of 2009. Hope springs eternal when you have a fresh P/L, I guess.
Closing rates here are 1.3580 in EUR/USD, 0.9340 in USD/JPY and 1.1875 in USD/CAD.
