The US core retail sales and unemployment claims results are out… and they ain’t looking good.

The jobless claims for January moves up to 304K comparing to December’s 279K number and versus the 282K anticipated.

Obviously Ms. USA  got down and low on the news which against Mr. Japanese Yen. Other consolidating currency pairs such as EUR/USD where Ms. USA is the quote currency, saw a tiny bit of an up move.

Mr. Aussie Saw it Coming

But Ms. USA wasn’t the only one with a wipeout this week. Mr. Aussie is also grumpy because the Land Down Under printed weaker than expected jobs figures for January.

What’s interesting about this latest Aussie employment report is that the RBA already hinted a weaker than expected results during their interest rate statement last week. Governor Stevens mentioned that they are expecting a prolonged downturn in hiring, predicting that the unemployment rate could peak a little higher than previously estimated.

With this, do you think the RBA would cut rates again?

Progress is a Slow Process for Mr. Euro

In another part of the world, Greece and the other members of the euro-group failed to even agree on the wording of a joint statement yesterday evening, let alone any agreement on how to progress their current stalemate on debt terms. The meeting ended with both parties saying little more than ‘talks will resume on Monday’ – hardly inspiring.

The lack of progress didn’t shake Mr., as he continues his crab-moves against his counterparts (except for the tiny bit of rise this morning we mentioned above. )

Investors are clearly used to Greco-European political wrangling since this all kicked off and maintain that kicking the can down the road is an acceptable strategy.