U.S. Market January 22, 2001

Conflicting comments out of Japan, mentioned in the Asian and European summaries, continued to play a role during New York hours, where USDJPY traded in an erratic fashion between the opening level of 117.85 and 117.00. It closed at the lower end of the range at 117.20, as end of the week profit taking in EURJPY took the cross down below 110.00 once again. The U.S. Trade Balance Figure for November, released this morning came in as expected, showing a 32.99 Billion deficit. This had little impact on the USD in general, but stop loss moves by the end of the European trading day, made EURUSD bounce between 0.9370 and 0.9430 before it broke through on the downside to a low of 0.9340. Once USDCHF broke through resistance at 1.6310 on the upside, it stayed well bid rest of the day and closed at 1.6370. GBPUSD opened at 1.4720 but followed EURUSD southbound by the European close, and extended it’s decline all the way down to 1.4630 in late trading. AUDUSD and NZDUSD closed the week on a slightly softer note at 0.5560 and 0.4475, with very limited action seen during U.S. trading hours.

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