ForexLive North American wrap: The five year itch

Initial jobless claims fall to 5 year low S&P 500 hits 5-year high BOJ considering open-ended asset purchases, 0% interest interest on reserves - RTRS USD/JPY breaks 90.00 EUR/JPY breaks 120.00 January Philly Fed -5.8 vs +5.8 exp US Dec housing starts 954K vs 890K exp Fed's Lockhart says bond buying likely to continue beyond mid-year Fed's Fisher says would not have voted for current QE program Lagarde says ECB should keep rates low or lower Fitch says US rating safe for now EUR/CHF breaks the post-cap high Republicans look to kick can on debt ceiling S&P 500 up 0.6% to 1481 EUR leads, JPY lags Another breath-taking session with yen crosses taking out major levels. At one point, EUR/JPY was up more than 300 pips on the day. We are seeing some late-day profit taking and it will be interesting to see if the breaks of 90 and 120 hold at the 5 p.m. close. EUR/USD bids at 1.3320 with offers from 1.3390/1.3405. USD/JPY broke 90.00 and instantly popped to 90.13 but a move to take profits was swift and the pair has slid back to 89.84. A close above 89.69 is bullish. Cable touched the lowest since late-November as stops broke below 1.5975. Bids at 1.5950 held and the pair rebounded back to 1.6000. Gold whipsawed traders. It fell to $1666 after the claims data sparked speculation the Fed would end QE sooner but then a wave of unexplained buying hit and took it to $1697, which is the highest since mid-December. AUD/USD has climbed back into the the 1.0520-1.0600 range but there is some major Chinese data on tap later, including GDP.