A holiday in Japan for the fourth consecutive day this week and in China for the third contributed to a rather lacklustre day in the FX market, saved by an afternoon sell-off in the Euro of forty points. There was no 'news' that seemed to trigger the move; it had been sitting quietly around 1.3170 before rapidly selling off to the 1.3130 level. There was some talk around of funds unwinding long EUR cross trades and also of stops in EUR/USD below 1.3140 - the net result was the sharp move down. As of writing the follow-through has been non-existent, but on the other hand it hasn't bounced too much either. GBP/USD sold off somewhat with the EUR/USD, from just below 1.6240 to 1.6200/05. Again, there was no specific GBP-related news. It should be noted that the AUD and NZD had only minor moves while the EUR and GBP were being hit. Also, the Globex equity futures saw only a small move lower, so it didn't seem to be a 'risk-off' sort of move. Earlier in the session the USD/JPY hit 87.36, making a brief new high before the sellers ahead of 87.50 held sway again - USD/JPY back to 87.09 and then ranging for the balance of the day. Data today was very limited, the only release being the December China Non-Manufacturing PMI, coming at 56.1 , vs. 55.6 in November, and its best result in four months. Newspaper article from Kathimerini earlier of nonperforming loans increasing 50% in 2012 didn't help Euro sentiment