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.

The euro hit a three week low against the dollar in active trade today as the unwind of the EURGBP long positions weighed on the currency throughout early European trade. In a session essentially empty of any key economic data trading was dominated by technical factors as cross selling and continued dollar strength took the EURUSD below 1.3500 figure.