• Wall Street at its lowest point in 6 years
• The EUR is rising
• High Volatility for the cable today

At the close of the markets on Friday evening Wall Street was at its lowest point in 6 years after losing 1.34% at the end of a a day which was full of the rumors that the U.S. government would decide to nationalize certain banks and even the expropriation of their shareholders.

For its part, the EUR rose sharply against the USD shortly before the close of U.S. markets on Friday. Indeed, before last week (in which the USD rose steeply), traders and investors preferred to take their profits. Their decisions were based on the speculation about the proposed nationalisation of some U.S. banks by the weekend. Thus the EUR, which was trading with below 1.2557 USD on Friday took over 400 pips this morning and has traded throughout this morning at about 1.2974 USD, close to the psychologically important threshold of 1.30.

As for the JPY – it has started this week with a sharp rise against the major currencies. There seems to be a return of a taste for risk taking appearing again on the markets. At 09.00 GMT, EUR/USD is trading at 120.76 compared with 119.15 JPY at the opening this morning. The USD/JPY, for its part, is stable at 93.16, compared with 93.21 at the opening this morning, after its sharp rise last week, which saw the cross take nearly 400 pips.

The GBP also rose against the USD this morning with a start of around 1.4566 – could this be the start of a move towards 1.47 barrier ?  For the moment the cable continues its upward phase and is currently testing the threshold of 1.4600. Although no major announcement is planned high volatility today is expected on this pair with an expected range of 1.4450 - 1.4750

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