Main event by far this morning has been ongoing intervention by the Bank of Japan in USD/JPY. That said we haven’t progressed too far, USD/JPY up at 85.25 from early 84.95. We did get as high as 85.52 at one stage before running into very decent sell interest from Japanese banks. Most probably Japanese exporter orders.

Highest I heard BOJ buying was 85.40/45 area.

We were already slipping slightly when China entered the market selling aggressively and we got back down to around 85.00 before renewed BOJ buying sent us back up again.

EUR/USD sits at 1.2975, effectively unchanged on the day. Big German noticeable seller into early rally, but BIS has been seen buying on a couple of ocassions helping limit losses. But it’s been a side-show with focus on USD/JPY.

Talk of buy orders, including sovereign interest, clustered down at 1.2935/40.

Cable sits at 1.5535, firmer from early 1.5485. Sterling has managed to survive a slightly disappointing jobs report and an appearance by BOE Governor Mervyn King at the TUC conference in Manchester.

Talk of sell orders clustered up around 1.5600.