Forexlive European Wrap: Down, Up then Down a-Yen

Swiss Jan Umemployment Unch at 3.1% German Dec trade bal +2bn from exp +0.2bn BOF French GDP forecast to rise 0.1% in Q1 2013 Swiss Adj Dec retail sales 5.1% from 2% exp Italian Jan IP 0.4% from 0.3% exp 21 Banks repay E5bln on 1st 3 year LTRO Greek IP rises 2.7% to -0.5% y/y It was all go in the Yen pairs today. Whilst most majors were dawdling along nicely the USD/JPY continued its sell off from the Asia session. Profit taking ahead of the long Japanese weekend was one reason. The selling intensified and we were quickly through 93 to a low of 92.70 before a quick bounce back to 93. Comments from Aso that the yen decline was too fast and more from Nissan triggered the trap door and we shot down to 92.15.  The crosses followed but within an hour we were bouncing back up 90 pips in USD/JPY and 150 odd pips in the EUR & GBP crosses. Then down we went again albeit rather more sedately. EUR/JPY and USD/JPY find themselves down near the lows at time of writing. EUR/USD & GBP/USD were having a day off with the euro stuck in a 30 pip range while cable strolled slowly higher. We were still in a tight 45 pip range until midday when we popped to 1.5801 from EUR/GBP falling through 0.8500 AUD/USD has also spent the session on the chairlift stopping just shy of 1.0350. Thank you once again for your comments and participation and I hope you all have a very good weekend. N.b I'll be here until Adam gets on