14.01.14

Good morning,

Negative Japanese trade balance figures out yesterday saw the JPY lose ground against cross pairs following the release. USD/JPY is now trading at 103.46 up from a low of 102.85 before the release. New Zealand figures released last night saw an improvement in Business Confidence, with electronic card retail sales out at 5.5% year on year. Thursday will see the Australian unemployment figures, with expectations that the rate will remain unchanged at 5.8%

The NIKKEI was trading at 15422.40 down 489.66 points or minus 3.08%

Europe today focuses on the British figures released at 9.30am GMT. The Consumer Price Index is expected out at 2.1% as before, while Euro-Zone Industrial figures will be released half an hour later. CABLE was trading at 1.6401 with a high of 1.6405 and a low of 1.6367 so far, while EUR/GBP was trading at 0.8327 with a high of 0.8341 and a low of 0.8327.

The FTSE100 closed at 6757.15 up 17.21 or 0.26% while the DAX closed at 9510.17 up 36.93 points or 0.39%

The US today sees Retail Sales figures for December released. Following the Retails Sales figures will be the Business Inventories for November, with speeches made by FED members Plosser and Fisher in the afternoon (GMT). The U.S. Congress on Monday unveiled a $1.1 trillion spending bill that aims to prevent another government shutdown. This includes $85B for ongoing Afghanistan military operations and $45B discretionary and military increases. EUR/USD was trading at 1.3668 with a high of 1.3670 and a low of 1.3649 so far.

The DOW closed at 16257.94 down 179.11 points or minus 1.09%

Hope you all have a nice day.