USD/JPY hit a 13 year low in Asian session trade today touching 88.15 after the US Senate failed to agree on a bailout package for the Big Three automakers. The news sent a wave of risk aversion flowing through the Asian equity markets as Nikkei tumbled more than 4%. Meanwhile the commdollars were the biggest victims of the news in the currency market with Aussie and loonie plunging more than 200 points from yesterday’s close.

An intraday selling opportunity as EUR/JPY hits critical intraday resistance near 130.50 with risk to 131.16

The resonance of the New Year is starting to show its true colors at the start of the first full trading-week this year. The Dow finished a volatile day lower, in some ways ruining the sense of stability that pervaded in last week’s market. Volatility in equity prices was complemented by some extreme moves in the fx markets. Looking at today’s biggest percentage movers we can see the sheer magnitude of price action today, with some moves extending to more than 3.0%. The dollar in particular was heavily mixed across the board. We have seen some substantial gains against the euro and yen, in conjunction with weakness against the pound and commodity currencies. Today’s trading was a truly unorganized and unpredictable force.

EUR/USD got off to a strong start on the first trading day of the week, as optimism among Asian equity investors, whetted risk appetite pushing the pair to within a whisker of 1.3500 level in early European trade. Both Nikkei and Kospi propelled higher rallying more than 5% each on the day, boosted by a variety of factors from the expectations of bailout of US automakers to the more than 7% spike in Baltic Dry Goods index on Friday.