Risk aversion and carry trade sales was the dominant theme in Asia after Japan and Hong Kong returned to trading in Asia today. This kept the USD moves against the EUR, GBP and CAD mostly sidelined after some late New York gyrations. The focus was on sales of EUR-JPY, AUD-JPY and NZD-JPY, as well as USD-JPY with USD-JPY probing fresh trend lows of 104.03. Adding particular selling pressure to AUD-USD was a sharp sell-off in commodities with oil dropping $4 a barrel, gold falling 1% on XAU/JPY unwinding. Shanghai metals fell 4% and other precious metals were down around 4-5% this session. Officials from Japan to Australia attempted to calm the market, with attention over exposure to Lehman's and concerns in Australia that risk exposure to AIG was greater than Lehman. Speculation over a Fed rate cut continued, with rumors that they would even cut before the European open but the WSJ updates continued to downplay any move by the Fed today. Asian stock markets fell sharply with the Nikkei down 5%, China down 3%,
