The Chicago Fed national activity index dipped to -0.81 in September from an upwardly revised -0.65 in August. This suggests the national economy lost a bit of momentum in September.

Also crossing the wires is news that the Japanese finance minister will not attend the G20 meeting in Scotland next week. I guess we can assume there will be no major currency accords coming out of that meeting…

EUR/USD has taken on a slightly easier tone in its range with US equity futures ceding most of their earlier gains…We trade now at 1.5018.