StockMarketWire.com - END OF DAY The Bank of Japan (BoJ) began the day with an announcement that would see them begin an open-ended round of bond purchases at the beginning of 2014. The reaction however, took much of the market by surprise, resulting in the Japanese yen pushing lower off the eight month high of 90.27 down to 88.34 against the USD. The yen was responsible for the top seven biggest movers in the daily charts with the biggest of those being; CADJPY -1.81%, GBPJPY 1.79%, EURJPY -1.69%. The EUR/USD saw a return of volatility pushing a daily high of $1.3771 in the Asia session before a sharp move to the downside at $1.3326 as better-than-expected numbers were seen in the ZEW economic sentiment.

After lower-than-expected core retail sales in Canada came in at at -0.3% month-on-month, the currency realised gains against both AUD and NZD pushing higher on the day with the former +0.62% at 1.0418 and the latter +0.61% at 0.8289. The CADCHF also realised losses of -0.63% as the Swiss franc strengthened to 0.9416 on the day.

Later this evening (6pm GMT) sees European Central Bank (ECB) president Draghi chair a press conference, which some investors will be hoping gives the EUR direction as the EUR continues to consolidate against the major currencies.

At market close:


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