It was another exciting session in NY early on as the buck extended overnight gains on unbridled risk aversion. The overnight comments from China that they did not ask the G-8 to discuss the USD reserve status at the meeting next week provided the spark and a horrendous NFP report did the rest. US nonfarm payrolls plunged -467K in June, well below the consensus call for a -365K drop but more in line with our forecast of -410K. This sent equities reeling and the yen crosses were promptly sold in size. USD/JPY eventually collapsed from an intraday high by 96.90 towards a 95.70 low. EUR/JPY meanwhile was sitting by the 134.15/20 lows after falling from 136.70 highs earlier in the day.

The immediate reaction in EUR/USD was less decisive as the ECB press conference loomed. President Trichet offered little in the way of nuance and noted that while rates are ''appropriate'' he does not affirm that they are at the ''lowest'' level. The EU60 billion covered bond program was not tweaked and thus the reasons to toss EUR around were limited. Eventually it was all about risk and EUR/USD caught up dropping towards 1.3890 where a plethora of stops ostensibly lurk. The other big story was on the commodity front as a near -4% collapse in oil led commodities on a -2% day. This proved detrimental to AUD and CAD on the follow. AUD/USD fell from a NY high near 0.8030 and was sitting at 0.7940 ahead of the close. USD/CAD meanwhile rallied from the 1.1507 session low towards well above the 1.16 level.

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7/2 23:30 GMT AU  AiG Performance of Service Index  JUN  39.9  - -