As officials met for the G-20 meeting currencies were mixed with no overall theme defining trade today. In Japan the TANKAN report recorded its worst reading ever but the data had little impact on USD/JPY. Instead the pair reacted to a Bloomberg story that the Obama administration was considering bankruptcy for the auto companies which spurred a wave of risk aversion that dropped the USD/JPY more than 100 points in a matter of minutes. However, the pair spent the rest of the night crawling back to 9900 with many traders now targeting the psychologically important 100 level for a stop run.

Another rambling night of trade in the currency market as the EUR/USD struggled with the 1.3000 handle after staging a reversal in North American session yesterday. Better risk appetite and the growing political woes of the Obama administration helped fuel Tuesday's rally, but the unit could not hold its gains as dour economic data and steady EURGBP sell flows kept the downward pressure.

Last week’s counter trend rally in GBP/USD came to a crushing halt in early London trade today as the unit slid nearly 300 points off its highs having reached key resistance at the 1.4500 level before the week-end. The worst snowstorm to hit UK in more than 15 years added to the sterling’s woes as businesses struggled to open at the start of the week. The primary cause for the down draft however was simple risk aversion and profit taking.

The EUR/USD drifted lower in early European trade after an initial burst of risk appetite dissipated in wake of further evidence of slowing consumer demand in the region. The pair climbed above the 1.2900 barrier in late Japanese trading on the back of an announcement by BOJ that the central bank would purchase up $111.5 Billion of Japanese banking shares. However, the enthusiasm faded after the release of German Retails Sales disappointed once again sending the pair down to test support at 1.2800 figure.