A.M. Update

It's a pretty quiet morning thus far, no major US macro news other than Housing Starts, perhaps the calm before the storm with the 2 p.m. release of the F_O_M_C minutes which like any F_E_D release are subject to the instant knee jerk reaction, whether up or down, if it seems like an unreasonable knee jerk move, most of the time it is and reverses.

Asia was a bit weak overnight with the Nikkei closing down a mild -.32% , the Hang Send -.66% and the Shanghai Comp. -.22%. Europe is mostly green, but a bit mixed with some weakness in the FTSE 100. However charts still look like the Nikkei is about to see a strong downward correction.

After all of the excitement surrounding Abe , the sales tax hike delay in Japan and the snap elections of yesterday, today the BOJ was rather dull , simply continuing policy but this time by an 8 to 1 vote as opposed to the policy change which was 5 to 4. The Yen has been beating a path lower and lower, however the USD/JPY hasn't done much for futures and the $USD just hit lows of this week this morning leaving the USD/JPY look like it may just take a break after having run stops above $117

USD/JPY


US Index Futures have lost some ground overnight, interesting in almost every case, it's the contentious ground made between 2 p.m. and the close while nearly every other risk asset was selling off hard, especially credit.

There's no edge to the trade this morning with a choppy range and no divergences.

ES /SPX Futures.

As you can see, it's a bit quiet in front of the F_E_D minutes.