ForexLive North American Wrap: Durable Disappointment

Durable goods non-defense ex-air 0.0% vs +0.8% exp
GDP estimates lowered after durable goods report
Initial jobless claims 369K vs 370K exp
Pending home sales +0.3% vs +2.5% exp
KC Fed -4 vs +2 prior
Greece pushes back against Troika labor reform
Japan preparing QE9
Irish GDP forecast lowered to 1.1% by IMF
Bundesbank: Downside risks for 1.6% German GDP forecast
Rumor Fitch to downgrade US; immediately denied
80 CEOs tell US to get on with fixing deficits
S&P downgrades SocGen and Credit Agricole
GBP leads, JPY lags
S&P 500 up 0.3% to 1413

The yen was in the spotlight as it touched extremes on a number of crosses. USD/JPY rose to the highest since June at 80.34. The early gains were wiped out as another swoon in the stock market knocked it down to 79.95 but it rebounded to the highs in a sign of the underlying USD/JPY demand.

EUR/USD was a one-way bleed lower. US trading started at 1.2990 and the euro slowly slid to 1.2941, finishing at the lows of the day.

The durable goods orders numbers sapped the earlier strength in the commodity currencies. AUD/USD stalled ahead of 1.04 in Europe and is back to 1.3052.