USD

The dollar has been mixed for much of this morning’s session. However, it has started to lose ground versus a number of its peers. The AUD/USD pair is higher by 0.02% at $1.0417. The dollar has also lost a lot of ground versus the pound and the yen in the latest round of trading. It may be that traders are starting to sell the greenback after the release of negative U.S. data yesterday afternoon.

EUR

The EUR/USD pair is weaker today by 0.07% at $1.3557. The EUR/GBP cross has slumped 0.24% to 85.66 pence. Traders have sold off the European single currency today, as there is little bullish sentiment in the financial markets at the moment. The contraction in the U.S. economy in the last four months of 2012 has led traders to sell the euro. Instead, they are waiting on the sidelines to a certain extent until this afternoon.

JPY

The JPY is much stronger today versus its main peers after there were weak economic figures from both Japan and the U.S. in the past day. This has resulted in traders being weary of putting their money into risky assets. Instead, they have decided to ditch higher-yielding currencies and open long positions in the yen. The USD/JPY pair is lower by 0.19% at 90.92 yen. Further gains may be ahead for the yen.

There was a lot of volatility for the leading Asian shares earlier this morning. The speculation came on the busiest day in Japan’s earnings season and following a fall in the U.S. economy in the last 3 months of 2012.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained by less than 0.1 percent to 133.34. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average added 0.2%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.4%. South Korea’s Kospi Index lost 0.1%. Taiwan’s Taiex Index advanced 0.2%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index slipped 0.5%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index advanced 0.1%.

Whitehaven fell 5.5% to A$3.28. Daewoo Engineering lost 5.4% to 9.050 won. Nintendo Co. fell 4.6%. Honda Motor Co. jumped 0.8%.

There will be a lot of economic data from the U.S. economy later today that traders will need to follow it closely. For example, there is the jobless claims and personal spending at 13:30 GMT. In addition, there will also be GDP figures from Canada. Follow these closely if you trade U.S. stocks.

Crude Oil

Crude oil futures continued to climb yesterday. The negative news is that these gains have not prolonged into this morning’s trading session.

The energy is weaker at the moment by 33 cents at $97.61. Traders have decided to ditch the crude oil binary option today due to inventories rising notably last week.

In addition, the U.S. economy contracted by 0.1% in the fourth quarter.

This led to a lot of negative sentiment in the markets, as the contraction was unexpected.

The losses this morning may be partially owed to the price of crude overheating.

This makes it more understandable why crude prices slid today. The U.S. economy will need to show positive signs at the minimum in order to lend a helping hand to crude oil in the coming hours of trading.

GBP/USD

The GBP/USD pair is up 0.16% at $1.58. The pound has gained today after the U.K. recently released a string of positive data. The advances for the pound come in spite of the U.K. economy slowing down and a risk of a triple dip recession. This volatility is unexpected for the GBP and shows why it is so important that you following the markets very closely each trading day.