Durable goods and jobless claims disappoint the markets!

•  The dollar weakened yesterday as a series of disappointing data hit the wires. Durable goods Orders shrank by 0.6% for the month indicating a slowdown in the manufacturing sector of the US which has been the main sector in pulling the country out of recession. We also had a spike in jobless claims to 496K weekly; this number is often used as an indicator for the upcoming Non Farm Payrolls report next Friday. The recent series of jobless claims indicates that NFP has yet to stabilize thus risk aversion gripped the markets and the JPY surged following the print. We also had Fed Chairman Bernanke appear before the senate however nothing new was said since his last testimony. USDJPY price action yesterday was between 88.80 - 89.50  
•  In Europe the sentiment continued to deteriorate as S&P put Greece's sovereign debt on negative watch and warned that it may cut Greece's rating further in a month provided Greece does not deviate from its austerity plans. If Greece implements the proposed changes the S&P says that the rating will remain unchanged at BBB+. In the financial data side of things we saw a hike in unemployment by 7K, the unemployment rate remained at 8.2%. We also had an economic sentiment report yesterday which came in strong at 95.9. EURUSD price action yesterday was between 1.3448 - 1.3600.
•  In the UK we had a BoE policymaker David Miles also comment on the nature of the QE pause indicating that it may be a temporary pause rather than an indefinite one. Today we have the UK GDP revision expected to be revised to 0.2% up from 0.1%. Price action for the GBPUSD yesterday was between 1.5187 - 1.5419.
•  In today's financial calendar we have European inflation expected to fall by -0.8% and the UK GDP revision expected to be 0.2%. In the US we have the Chicago PMI report, consumer sentiment reports and existing home sales all expected to be in line with previous month's readings. 

 Currency to watch out for: EURUSD & USDJPY

• § The EURUSD pivot point is at 1.3530 with a preference to enter into long positions at 1.3540
• § The USDJPY pivot point is at 88.80 with a preference to enter long positions at 88.85

 Today's calendar and market movers:

• § Euro zone Inflation for January expected to drop by -0.8%
• § UK GDP revision expected to be revised to 0.2%
• § US GDP Preliminary expected to grown by 5.7%
• § US existing home sales for January expected at 5.5mln.

 Equity Markets:

•  US equities closed negative yesterday day with the DJIA and the SP500 closing -0.51% and -0.21% respectively.  The European bourses were negative yesterday with the FTSE down -1.21% the DAX and the CAC closing negative at -1.48% and -2.02% respectively.  The NIKKEI and the HSI at the time of writing is 0.24% and 1.04% respectively.