European session: investors are getting rid of risky assets

The yen rose to the strongest level in almost six weeks against the euro as signs global growth is slowing underpinned demand for the relative safety of the Japanese currency.

The dollar appreciated versus all but one of its 16 major counterparts after South Korea unexpectedly cut interest rates and European and Asian stocks declined.

The euro fell below $1.22 for the first time since July 2010.

The yen briefly erased its daily advance versus the dollar and euro after the BOJ boosted its purchase program and said it will continue powerful monetary easing. The BOJ expanded its asset-purchase fund by 5 trillion yen to 45 trillion yen and cut the size of a credit loan facility by the same amount to 25 trillion yen. The central bank held its benchmark rates at between zero to 0.1 percent and left the maturity of government debt it buys unchanged at three years.

Australia’s dollar dropped for the fourth time in five days after the statistics bureau said in Sydney said the number of people employed in the country fell by 27,000, almost erasing a revised 27,800 job gain in May. The jobless rate increased for a second month, to 5.2 percent from 5.1 percent.

EUR / USD: during the European session, the pair renewed two-year low of $ 1.2169

GBP / USD: a pair of updated intraday low $ 1.5432

USD / JPY: during the session, the pair has updated intraday low Y79.23

At 12:30 GMT, Canada publishes an index of housing prices in the primary market in May. At 12:30 GMT the U.S. will the number of initial claims for unemployment insurance and the number of repeated applications for unemployment benefits, as well as the import price index for June. At 18:00 GMT the U.S. will provide a monthly performance report.