Overnight News

The dollar got hit hard last night as China's top political advisor, Cheng Siwei said that China should diversify its 1.43 trillion FX reserves into buying strong currencies like the EUR.  Later Cheng clarified his statement and said he did not mean to say we should buy more EUR's, but did not elaborate.

The damage was done and the dollar sold off strong reaching a high of 1.4701 versus the EUR (from 1.4565 closing level), 2.1049 versus the GBP (from 2.0879 clsoing level), 112.84 versus the JPY (from 114.65 the closing level), and 1.1286 versus the CHF (from 1.1444 closing level).

The RBA raised rates by 25 basis points last night.

In Germany Industry output rose 0.3% m/m vs +1.9% previous and -0.3% expectations.

Gold rose to $845 and Crude Oil is testing $99 per barrel. 

The DJI Futures are down 147. Nasdaq Futures are down 19.2,  and S and P are down 17.4.  

GM announced earnings and posted a 39 Billion net loss for the quarter.  The whopping loss was "attributed to a $38.6 billion noncash charge largely related to establishing a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets in the U.S., Canada and Germany, as well as mortgage losses at GM's former financial arm, GMAC Financial Services"