Asian session: The euro sank to five-week lows

The Bank of Japan (8301) cut its economic assessment as a global slowdown erodes exports, underscoring the nation’s vulnerability to Europe’s deepening debt crisis. Governor Masaaki Shirakawa and his policy board left the BOJ’s asset-buying fund unchanged at 20 trillion yen ($260 billion) after increasing it by 5 trillion yen on Oct. 27. It also held the overnight lending rate between zero and 0.1 percent, the central bank said in a statement released today in Tokyo. The decisions were unanimous.

EUR/USD: on Asian session the pair fell.

GBP/USD: on Asian session the pair decreased.

USD/JPY: on Asian session  the pair fell.

On Wednesday UK data includes labour market data at 0930GMT, which is expected to make grim reading. The lowest forecast from any analyst in our survey was for a 15,000 rise in claimant count jobless on the month. The median forecast is 25k and the unemployment rate is expected to hit 8.2%. Faced with a deteriorating business outlook, employers appear to be switching to hiring temporary workers. The Bank of England Quarterly Inflation Report is due at 1030GMT and is set to be a dovish report, with inflation shown falling back sharply from its current 5% level. In an  open letter Tuesday BOE Governor Mervyn King predicted inflation would drop rapidly in the next six months and "continue falling thereafter to around target by the end of next year." The Inflation Report forecasts extend out to end 2013 on unchanged policy and end 2014 on market rates, and analysts expect they will show CPI moving below the 2% target both two and three years ahead.US data starts at 1200GMT with the weekly MBA Mortgage Application Index, which is followed at 1330GMT by the October CPI data. Consumer prices are expected to rise 0.1% in October, based on early forecasts. Core CPI is expected to rise 0.2%. US data continues with the Treasury International Capital System (TICS) data at 1400GMT and then Industrial Production at 1415GMT. Industrial production is expected to rise 0.3% in October after rising 0.2% in September, based on early estimates. At 1745GMT, Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren delivers a speech to the Boston Economic Club.