The Philly Fed factory index survey printed far better than expected in April, coming in at -24.4 versus -35 anticipated. Every major sub component showed improvement with future index rising to 36.2 vs. 14.5 new orders climbing to -24.3 from -40.7 and employment at -44.9 versus 52.0.

US Retail Sales for March printed much worse than forecast at -1.1% versus expectations of 0.3% gain. Less autos the number also printed weaker at -0.9% versus 0.0% projected. The news was a blow to recovery bulls who had argued that US consumer demand was stabilizing as the US economy was in the process of carving out a bottom.

A relatively quiet night of trade in the currency markets punctuated by some profit taking in high beta currencies after the euro, the pound and the Aussie all rallied strongly yesterday as risk appetite continued to dominate trade. Today the mood has been t more somber with US equity futures pointing to a lower open despite the fact that Goldman Sachs reported better than expected results yesterday after the close of US equity session.

With many of the markets in Asia Pacific and most of Europe still closed for Easter holiday, trading in the currency markets was characteristically quiet with risk appetite the dominant theme as high beta currencies staged a slow but steady rally throughout the night . The action started in very early Asia when stop running in the AUD/USD pushed the pair through the 7300 handle in very thin trading conditions. Aussie retreated off the highs settling near the 7250 level but it set the tone for the rest of the day as euro, pound and other high beta currencies all rose in tandem.

High beta currencies enjoyed a rally for the second night in a row boosted by further gains in equities and continuation in risk appetite. Carry flows were once again the dominant theme in Asian trade with USD/JPY rising to 98.40 while many the yen crosses reached their highest levels since last October. The Nikkei followed through on the nearly 500 point gain in the Dow rising 272 points but the gains on the European markets were decidedly more modest with most indices barely above break even.