Crude oil price, which has been macro-driven recently, plunged Thursday as US data showed mixed economic development. Although price had briefly broken below 80 (intra-day low 79.7), the front-month contract managed to close 80.21, down -0.8%. Gold also plunged, in tandem with other commodities, as USD strengthened. The benchmark contract slipped -0.9% to settle at 1133.1, halting the 2-day rally. Today in Asian session, sideways trading is seen ahead of US' employment report.

US pending home sales unexpectedly contracted -7.6% m/m (consensus: +1.5% in January, after a +0.8% gain in the previous month. Decline in sales was seen in most regions including the West (-13.2%), Midwest (-8.9%) and Northeast (-2.1%). Similar to other weak data released recently, the best reason for disappointment is 'bad weather'. The National Associations of Realtors said that further declines are expected in February due to snowstorms during the period.

The housing market is determined by employment situation. Initial jobless claims fell to 469K from 496K in the prior week while the less-volatile 4-week average also slid -4K to 471K during the week. The most encouraging part we find is continuing claims which dropped -134K to 4500K, the lowest level since January 2009. There have been signs that the US job market is improving. The government will release February's employment report of the results should have been distorted by severe weather conditions during the period. Consensus forecasts payrolls fell -40K after dropping -20K in January. Unemployment rate probably rose to 9.8% from 9.7% in January.

Worse-than-expected Canadian data also weighed on commodities. The country's building permits plummeted -4.8% m/m in January whereas the market had anticipated modest increase of +1.25. Ivey PMI rose to 51.9 in February from 50.8 a month ago. However, consensus was a stronger improvement to 56.

Commodities were also pressured by rebound in USD. While the dollar index rallied to 80.59 (+0.7%). USD gained ground against most major currencies, including Japanese yen. The euro and the pound weakened against the dollar after both of the ECB and BOE announced to keep their policy rates unchanged. ECB President Trichet also fine-tuned some of the stimulus measures implemented last year to combat recession. The aim of the adjustments was to withdraw excess liquidity from the market. With regard to economic outlook, Trichet described the recovery as uneven.

JPY dropped -0.7% against US amid speculations that the BOJ will implement further easing measures to fight against deflation. The LIBOR market shows that 3-month LIBOR rate for JPY-denominated loans fell below that for USD-denominated loans yesterday, for the first time since August 2009. This indicates Japanese yen might have become the best funding currency again.