The 'Risk Trade' Surges Across The Board

Market Brief

USD weakness was the primary theme in the Asian session. The DXY is now making fresh lows, while the EURUSD peaked above thee 1.4900 handle. Sterling finally gained some ground on the greenback weakness, stopping just short of the 1.6000 level. Overall, risk correlated trades are showing a stellar performance and there seems to be little in the way of shifting risk appetite. Even a report that had Moody's stating that banks in Spain were failing to recognize the full extent of their losses could not dampen the optimistic outlook. In addition, the Moody's report also stated that given the size of the bad debt, the Spanish banks would have insufficient capital to cover. And in another article it mentioned that 13 EU member states were in a high risk group, due to bad loans and couldn't see how they could fund their debts through just state income. Perhaps the news that Intel's corporate earnings had topped analysis expectations helped mute the Moody report. Equity market and commodities rallied on the positive numbers and USD sank.

The BoJ Policy Board ended its two-day monetary meeting with a unanimous decision to leave rates unchanged at 0.1%, as was universally expected. The accompanying statement did not comment on the end-December deadline for commercial paper and corporate bond buying operations, as some had predicted. What was more relevant was comments from Japan 's deputy finance minister expressing views on the JPY, which were indistinguishable to those of Finance Minister Fujii. He stated that current JPY strength is due to USD weakness, and that large FX swings are unwelcomed, and that rises in the JPY is not an adequate reason for intervention. In other words, an official green light to buy JPY.

In the US session, markets will be watching Retail Sales and FOMC minutes, as well as corporate earnings from JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley. The FOMC minutes will be closely examined, as participants seek clarity on the Fed's current position on exit strategies

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