Themes

· General mood is “risk off”

· U.S. Initial Jobless Claims worse than expected at 200k from 179.75k talk

· U.K. BoE raises rates 25bps, concerned about a recession and 10% inflation

What’s Moving

Initial overnight trade saw Dollar buying across the board, with safe haven bids also helping to support the Yen and Swiss Franc.

The market then stalled after the BoE raised U.K. interest rates by a greater than expected 1% and in addition warned of 10% inflation and an impending recession. These headlines saw the Pound nailed hitting a near two-year low on the news.

The weakness in the Pound saw U.S. stocks hit hard, which also saw some dollar sales into the close.

Thoughts

Friday in Asia is not expected to see anything more than consolidation of the overnight moves. Especially ahead of tonight’s U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls data.

Data locally today includes:

· Australian AIG Services Index (E: 57.8)

· Japanese Tokyo Core CPI (E: +1.8%)

· RBA Monetary Policy Statement