ForexLive Americas Wrap: US Economic Data Roars

Bernanke: Benefits of easing outweigh costs and risks `at this point` Bernanke: Supportive of Japan's efforts to get rid of deflation US new home sales 437K vs 380K exp Richmond Fed +6 vs -4 exp Consumer confidence 69.6 vs 62.0 exp S&P Case-Shiller 20-city Dec home price index +6.84% y/y vs +6.62% exp US Dec house price index +0.6% vs +0.6% exp French job seekers rise 43.9K vs 17.5K exp Berlusconi open to alliance, says it will take time BOE's Fisher sees case for ‘prolonged run' of gilt purchases Soc Gen says EUR/USD could hit 1.25, GBP/USD could hit 1.40 S&P says Italian rating not immediately affected by election JPMorgan to cut 17,000 jobs S&P 500 up 0.6% to 1497 USD leads, NZD lags From a day of total madness to a day of total nothingness. The market decided to take a day off and catch its breath despite some good economic numbers. The market was jittery headed into Bernanke's speech, worried that he would threaten to taper the QE heroin. His 'at this point' comment was a slight move toward less QE and that was all it took to sack risk trades and hurt gold. After a quick drop to $1585 a monster gold buyer stepped in and bid it to $1620. The drops in CAD and AUD eventually retraced but NZD broke some key technical levels and ends the day on a weak note. Some minor volatility in EUR and JPY but nothing compared to yesterday and both close very near to unchanged on the day.