Asia Session Today's Market Update

The last day of the Asian week ended in a dynamic fashion right out of the gate as the Euro extended losses against the US Dollar as it collapsed almost 175 pips in a wave of stop loss selling in a thinned market. After yesterday's poor US employment data cast a dark cloud on the hopes of an early emergence from the global recession, the Greenback was bought in a hasty fashion as investors looked for safety as they fled riskier assets. If you didn't look at a chart after yesterday's Asia close and just opened one up for the start of the trade day today, it's safe to say that the moves you witnessed were startling. The drop on the open today in EUR/USD was as well, quite dynamic, and after the pair hit bottom below 1.3930, it spent the rest of the session clawing higher as investors looked to buy the European currency at the lows of the week.

Not taking the Euro move into account, the markets were whippy due to the holiday thinned markets as well as traders just taking a deep breath after the giant moves  in NY. USD/JPY bounced around a 35 pip range, but looked unchanged for the day near 95.95 as the session and subsequently week, wound down. After the Euro dragged the EUR/JPY about 60 pips lower to near 133.60, the pair reversed to end up unchanged. With risk aversion looking like its back in vogue, the moves could be attributed to profit taking and pure short term speculation. The Aussie and Kiwi dollars both posted gains after rebounding off of weekly lows and the USD/CHF pair was retracing closer to the 1.0845 opening level after being catapulted to 1.0900 on the huge dollar move on the open.

Although equities and bonds are closed tomorrow in the US for the Independence Day holiday weekend, the currency markets, although probably thin, will in fact be open. If reading this in the US, enjoy the Holiday Weekend...

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session)                 prior      expected

7/3/2009	7:15	SZ	CPI (MoM)	JUN	0.20%	0.10%
7/3/2009	7:15	SZ	CPI (YoY)	JUN	-1.00%	-1.10%
7/3/2009	7:50	FR	PMI Services	JUN F	47.5	- -
7/3/2009	7:55	GE	PMI Services	JUN F	44.3	44.3
7/3/2009	8:00	EC	PMI Services	JUN F	44.5	44.5
7/3/2009	8:00	EC	PMI Composite	JUN F	44.4	44.4
7/3/2009	8:30	UK	PMI Services	JUN	51.7	51.5
7/3/2009	8:30	UK	BoE Housing Equity Withdrawal	1Q	-£8.0B	-£9.0B
7/3/2009	9:00	EC	Euro-Zone Retail Sales (MoM)	MAY	0.20%	-0.10%
7/3/2009	9:00	EC	Euro-Zone Retail Sales (YoY)	MAY	-2.30%	-2.70%