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.

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.