- Holidays in Australia and China ensured another extremely quiet Asian session
- Commodities rallied after the Fed statement improved risk sentiment; copper +1% and Gold rallied by almost $50 overnight
- Japan December CSPI +0.1% MoM
- RBNZ keep rates on hold; likely to stay that way until Q4
- Davos economic forum gets underway, Merkel appeals for more time to solve crisis
- Nikkei -0.4%, Kospi +0.2%
Totally lifeless session in Asia with an Australian holiday ensuring a quiet start and the Chinese holiday ensuring it stayed that way.
Any hope for volatility early in the session lay with the RBNZ but they did as expected and the NZD/USD steadied near .8160 and has stayed there since. The Aussie also took the day off in the FX markets, trading a tight 1.0582/1.0616 range. Order books are reportedly quite bare, close to current levels at least, with no bids of note until 1.0550 ish and offers are light until 1.0690.
EUR/USD consolidated near 1.3100 with no major news or statemnts on the EZ debt crisis. One Goldman analyst predicted that EUR/USD would now rally to 1.38. Range: 1.3088/1.3113
USD/JPY 77.65/82; cable 1.5648/61; EUR/CHF 1.2071/89
