The Japanese Yen rose on Thursday as investors shifted assets out of the troubled Euro Zone on renewed budget turmoil in Greece. A spike in the cost to insure Greece’s sovereign debt triggered a flight to safety rally which fueled a turnaround in the Yen after earlier weakness. News that a similar situation is developing in Portugal also contributed to the Yen’s strength.

Investors dumped stocks late in the trading session on Friday as sentiment shifted toward less risky assets. The combination of a stronger Dollar, monetary tightening in China and a proposal by Obama to end financial institution prop trading weighed heavily on traders this week.

The shape of this economic recovery will not be in a “V”, as many pundits have promulgated, but instead may be the inversion of that letter…which will unfortunately look much more like a tepee. The upcoming downfall will surprise most investors who have been tricked into believing that a government can print and spend their way into prosperity.

The U.S. Dollar continued its New Year slide as investors sought higher risk assets. Overnight an index representing a trade weighted basket of currencies turned it main trend down on the daily chart on a trade through 77.32. The chart pattern now suggests a correction to 76.31 to 75.80 is imminent. This move would represent a normal retracement of the entire 74.17 to 78.45 rally.