EUR/USD sits at 1.4915 , down from a North American close up around 1.4960. A fairly hefty slide in Japanese stocks will have helped pressure the pairing.

Elsewhere, California’s state budget analyst predicted yesterday that the state’s budget deficit will balloon to $20.7 bln over the next 18 months. Poor old Arnie.

Euro zone data thin on the ground today;

09:00 GMT: Italian trade balance for September

At the moment it’s all about the ACB 1.48-1.5100 dnt. The sovereign is micro-managing the position to good effect at the moment, having been seen buying as high as the 1.4880/90 area and offloading up at 1.4990/00 last I heard. May have offloaded some more at lower levels, but haven’t heard any reports as yet.

The option expires at tomorrows New York cut, so it’s a good guess we’ll see fairly narrow rangebound trade continue, at least for this morning.