Currencies rally then fall back…  Rate slashers!  Following Japan? Let’s hope not!  Canada’s woes mount…
And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Dollar firms vs euro; ECB seen cutting rates by 50 bp… Oil slides as demand woes outweigh U.S. stockpile dip… ZKB platinum ETF holdings rise 27 pct

Japanese yen rallies…  Renminbi stumbles…  A very tough data week in store…  Rate cuts all around the world… And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Currency Volatility!  Trading Theme creeps back!  ADP indicates a bad Jobs Jamboree…  Putting on my thinking cap…  And Now… Today’s Pfennig!

Contrasting monetary policy moves from the Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank (ECB).

The BoE stunned the markets with a 1.5% rate cut, taking its benchmark rate to 3.0%, the lowest in over half a century. The ECB, meanwhile, met expectations with a 50 basis-point cut. The Eurozone’s policy rate now stands at 3.25%.

This from Bloomberg:

The Bank of England is working with the government to limit the fallout from what it calls the worst global banking crisis in almost a century. Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced last month to broker a takeover of HBOS Plc and Bank of England figures show financial institutions in the U.S. and Europe have already suffered $2.8 trillion in securities losses from the crisis.

“They’re admitting…

I believe that when the dust settles on the fact that the Fed isn’t going to raise rates, things will have gotten so bad here that the Fed will be entertaining thoughts of cutting rates again!

Why housebuilders are demanding state hand-outs… More hilarity in the housing industry this weekend. Builders are now demanding state help. As housing sales have collapsed, the construction industry faces mass redundancies, while house builders themselves have seen their share prices dive.

Come on, do you really believe the Fed is going to raise rates now, or in the near future with the economy teetering on the edge of a deep dark recession? Not a snowball’s chance in you know where! So, that leaves us with jawboning.

Apparently, there’s just no stopping stocks. They just keep on trucking higher as investors forget about the recent troubles in the financial sector and focus on Merrill Lynch’s note that ‘credit markets may be “past their worst”’.

Banks haven’t exactly been covering themselves in glory recently. The sector has gone from one pratfall to another ever since Northern Rock first warned it was in trouble last summer.