The servers picked a fine time to go on the blink…
The funny thing is, we don’t know that much more than we did an hour ago when the slide began….
Traders report that the equity slide was kicked off by a massive 200,000 contract sell order in the S&P 500 mini contract. At the same time, talk of an Aussie resources tax made the rounds and focus shifted to the Obama bank plan around the same time. Suddenly, risk aversion swept through the market like a plague.
EUR/USD fell as low as 1.4030, nearly equalling the low from London late this morning. Protection of 1.4000 barriers is rumored.
USD/JPY was smoked as well and EUR/JPY tumbled on the rise of risk aversion.
Emerging markets are being badly hit with USD/BRL breaking above 1.80 for the first time since October.
AUD is at its lowest levels since the first trading day of the year, trading around 0.9040 after reaching 0.9030s at its worst.