It’s a Central Bank kind of day today with the Bank of Japan taking the spotlight..

It’s a Central Bank kind of day today with the Bank of Japan taking the spotlight as the country takes aggressive measures to fight deflation and achieve Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s mandate of 2% inflation. The European Central Bank and the bank of England left their rates alone, .75% and .5% respectively.  It’s been reported that the BoJ is looking to purchase long-term government debt stretching up to 40 years in maturity. The announcement of such an aggressive stance seemed to have caught market participants off guard. As the yen came under pressure so too did the precious complex as the greenback strengthened sharply against both the yen and the euro. With the entire precious complex in negative territory it’s palladium that’s taking the biggest beating as the metal currently trades more than 2.5% lower from yesterdays close. The announcement by the BoJ was expected to be supportive of yet another push higher for equities when the bell rings today. Unfortunately, yet another reading on U.S. employment may have sapped any hope of that happening. First time unemployment claims jumped 28,000 to 385,000 last week, surpassing the 345,000 estimate. The dismal report comes just a day after ADP reported unflattering private sector jobs data and a day ahead of the all-important government jobs numbers due out tomorrow. Have a great day!