New York Session / January 19, 2009 5:44 PM

Today's Market Update

Some really big moves today in Asia and the biggest of them all was the collapse of the British Pound, which hit a 7 year low against the US Dollar as the UK fell deeper into recession. Adding to the woes of the British Isles was Royal Bank of Scotland recording what looks to be the biggest loss in the history of all corporations in the UK, the stock led all banking stocks lower as it was down by over 65%. GBP/USD was destroyed this trade day, falling from early session highs near 1.4440, to just near 1.4135. This move is a continuation from yesterdays slip from just over 1.4900. A short squeeze near the bottom of the move was over dramatic due to thin markets, and pushed the pair to 1.4345. 1.4250-60 was where we were as of this writing. EUR/GPB was dramatic in its moves as well, climbing from near 0.9050 to a perch at 0.9180, and then the pair fell off a cliff, and dropped a full handle in a matter of minutes. Look for UK CPI later in the Europe session.

The Euro continued it's downward trend today after Spain was downgraded by Standard & Poor's, the single European Currency fell from 1.3100 to just near 1.2980 against the US Dollar. With German and Euro-Zone ZEW data due later, the softening Euro may continue.

The Yen strengthened against the Dollar as risk aversion was again in play in lieu of a dismal day in Asian stocks. USD/JPY dropped from 90.69 to near 90.10. As is the case across the board, bank stock led the fall, in this case HSBC in Hong Kong. GBP/JPY hit what looked like a record low near 127.40.

Tomorrow in the US is the long awaited Presidential Inauguration of Barak Obama, if you care to look back to our ''2008 Predictions'' from one year ago, you will see that our foresight was right on the money as we believed that he would be in the White House before he was even a frontrunner in the primaries.......Enjoy the show.

Upcoming Economic Data Releases (London Session):

1/20/2009	9:30	UK	CPI (MoM)	DEC	-0.10%	-0.90%
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	CPI (YoY)	DEC	4.10%	2.60%
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	Core CPI YOY	DEC	2.00%	1.30%
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	Retail Price Index	DEC	216	212.9
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	RPI (MoM)	DEC	-0.80%	-1.50%
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	RPI (YoY)	DEC	3.00%	0.80%
1/20/2009	9:30	UK	RPI Ex Mort Int.Payments (YoY)	DEC	3.90%	2.40%
1/20/2009	10:00	GE	ZEW Survey (Econ. Sentiment)	JAN	-45.2	-43.1
1/20/2009	10:00	GE	Zew Survey (Current Situation)	JAN	-64.5	-71.5
1/20/2009	10:00	EC	ZEW Survey (Econ. Sentiment)	JAN	-46.1	-46