EUR/usd

Well, after all Obama has nominated Janet yellen to head federal reserve. This news is not surprising as already for several weeks Yellen has been considered to be the most probable candidate for the post. The markets' attention was riveted on a different event – the publication of fomc's September meeting minutes. As you remember, then the size of the bond-buying programme was kept unchanged despite the warnings about readiness for gradual stimulus rollback. The minutes point out that the Committee sees the need for this measure already before the end of the year. So, it's all small wonder. Bernanke's caution can also be understood – he tried not to add fuel to the fire, anticipating troubles with the budget adoption. Despite all importance of the news, the markets seemed to be so exhausted by the political crisis that they were merely unable to show any proper reaction. The attempts to purchase the dollar on the news release were not crowned with success as earlier in the day the US currency had been appreciating. But even without the news, the dollar-bulls managed to push eurusd from 1.3600 down to 1.3480. During the Asian session today there again were attempts to consolidate below 1.3500, but this level didn't yield. Of course, it's largely connected with absence of full economic information, caused by the government shutdown. Also, as Americans still continue the heated discussion around the budget, which will eventually lead to some agreement, it is strengthening the US currency now. From the viewpoint of graphical analysis the level of 1.3500 is not as interesting as 1.3460, which may serve as the support or, on the contrary, intensify selling of the euro if broken.

GBP/USD

gbpusd keeps retracing, to some extent due to the slacker tone of statistics. Yesterday there was a release of industrial and trade balance data. The former instead of the expected growth by 0.2% lost 1.1% and the latter showed the deficit extension to £9.62bln against the forecasted £8.85bln. On such news the pair tumbled down to 1.5914, though before that it had hit the intraday high at 1.6120. Well, will the BOE extend a chain of failures, publishing some statements after today's MPC meeting?

USD/JPY

The yen keeps getting weaker – since the beginning of the week it has already lost about 2.3%. Yesterday afternoon usdjpy was growing due to the general appreciation of the US currency. It is remarkable that the yield of the long-term bonds is sliding down. The 30yr JGBs, issued last night, had the yield of 1.63% against the local peak of 1.894% in July. Before that there had been a global low in April, making 1.492% then. 

AUD/USD

The aussie failed to take advantage of the decline in unemployment. Actually, there's nothing good in the fact that unemployment has fallen from 5.8% to 5.6% as it happened due to the decrease in active workforce. Employment has grown, but the increase of 9.1K failed to cover the decline of the previous two months, when about 21.5K was lost.  So, for the Aussie the only resort is in demand for reserve diversification.