Supporters of Obama claim that his policies helped the nation recover from a horrible economic crisis, while his opponents claim that his policies significantly slowed the recovery. The numbers will not persuade either side, but they are still quite interesting to examine.

The US dollar has been under pressure since Bernanke’s recent softness. There is little chance that this trend will change. NFP Preview.

After a few minutes of choppy trading, the dollar is strengthening against all currencies apart from the yen. The disappointment, especially with the components of the weaker than expected growth, triggers risk averse trading, after a week that was full with optimism and even euphoria. EUR/USD is under 1.3130 once again.

Durable goods orders came out better than expected. Durable Goods Orders rose by 3%, while a rise of 2.1% was expected. Core orders, jumped by 2.1%, significantly better than 0.9% that was predicted.

This is likely to weaken the dollar against risk currencies. Here is what is expecting us in the monthly circus with 5 scenarios for the dollar. NFP Preivew.

The foreclosure freeze is gradually getting to the forefront of the news – a Bloomberg article dives into the issue, that hasn’t been highlighted by mainstream media at the beginning:

As Bernanke’s words always have some mystery in them, it’ll take time until the market fully digests the meaning of his words. There are more factors to weigh in:

As expected, the Federal Open Markets Committee concluded its two-day meeting with a unanimous decision to keep interest rates unchanged, at a range between 0 to 0.25%. They also supplied a notion about the recovery of the economy. That was expected after the surprising fall in the unemployment rate on Friday.

The Yen, however, managed to pull back from these low levels, as the price of oil relaxed, back to about $46 a barrell.