and we'll hear from stefane about socgen earnings. not the best signals about the health of the construction industry. forex, we've seen some interesting moves. just what is the u.s. dollar up to? that's what a lot of strategists are trying to figure out. we'll ask hsbc about that. the aussie dollar is one of the lone places we're seeing some positive action again today, 104.16 adding a tenth of a percent there. sterling weaker against the dollar. dollar-yen is below 80. it's 79.93, shed building a tenth of a percent, as japan has reported its first current account deficit post-adjustment to all the figures since statistics began in 1996. and finally the euro-dollar is just barely weaker, 1.2769, this ahead of the ecb's policy meeting and after greece has improved the latest round of austerity measures. what impact is that having across the bond spaes? you can see relatively risk on. spain and italy seeing prices rise, yield falling. spain of course has a big bond auction coming up that could meet its funding for the rest of the year

price target cut by socgen. biggest decliner on on the stoxx 600 is down by 4.6%. this is a specialty chemicals business. earnings pretty much in line with expectations. plans also announced to dispose of an italian business for an undisclosed sum. >>> elsewhere president obama resumes its election campaign duties today. he's ahead of mitt romney in three key states according to the latest "wall street journal" nbc poll. but the majority of the swing states are still there for the taking. it's shaping up to be one of the closest races in history. >> using new methodology, adp's revised calculations for the monthly job reaction at down from 162,000 the firm originally reported. october's figure is due out today. and washington's official nonfarm payroll on friday, of course. analysts are expecting around 15,000 jobs to have been created in october and a slight uptick in the job let last. did you see that story that said if you have a smartphone, blackberry, your company gets an extra 460 hours out of you a year. there is one or two that we get even more time on thei