On Thanksgiving when Americans celebrate their first bailout, the big story is that the planned "orderly" decline in the Greenback is starting to be anything but! With most US investors probably thinking more about holiday than markets, it should be no surprise that markets have traded quietly for the most part overnight. The main action has been in currency markets, where the Dollar has been sold across the board after breaking through 1.50 against the Euro and slumping to a 14 year low versus the Yen. Indeed the Dollar index has depreciated to levels last seen in August last year. Risk assets are generally a little firmer, helped by a global dataset that was generally better than expected. Treasuries are slightly stronger after another very good auction, with $32bn of 7-year Treasuries drawing a yield of just 2.835% and a bid-to-cover ratio of 2.76%. Probably the main news in debt markets overnight is state-owned Dubai World's request to creditors for a 'standstill' agreement as it seeks to negotiate to roll over some of its $59bn in liabilities. Dubai World's CDS rose 116bps to 434bps, wider than Iceland's yikes! Dubai is a train wreck that I first drew reader's attention to many moons ago on these pages. It would mark the biggest default since Argentina back in 2001. The market is assessing which banks have the largest exposure. Sadly public info is a tad sketchy. But using Bloomberg data HSBC, Standard Chartered, ING, Calyon, Barclays (BCS) and Lloyds look to have the most to lose.

Today's Market Moving Stories

• More FX moves this morning. Apparently there is a £4bn Sterling coupon due today, as the UK Government gilts have gone ex-div. It is likely that a large percentage of this coupon will be swapped out into other currencies, hence the softer British pound again today in terribly illiquid conditions. Not good news for Ireland Inc or ISEQ companies with large GBP earnings.
• Chinese banking shares continued to be weighed down, as a poor debut for China Minsheng Bank's H-shares contributed to the negative sentiment for the sector.
• Wal-Mart (WMT), Target (TGT) and Kohl are competing for customers with discounts and extended Black Friday hours as cost-conscious shoppers say they plan to spend less on gifts than they did last year. Kohl plans to open at 4 am on November 27 and offer more than 300 early-bird specials, including $34.99 cashmere sweaters. Macy's cut the prices of some wool coats as much as 70%. Wal-Mart is staying open all night so shoppers can grab $3 pajamas and $15 Miley Cyrus jeans. The day after Thanksgiving is known as Black Friday, the traditional beginning of holiday buying. Explanations of the phrase's origins differ, one holding that it's the weekend when retailers go to being in the black, profitable for the year.
• California, one-time hub of subprime mortgage lending and the nation's leader in home foreclosures, has turned the corner toward a housing recovery, according to the state Association of Realtors. Single-family home prices in California rose for the eighth consecutive month in October. The median cost of an existing, detached house gained 0.3% from the previous month to $297,500. Prices dropped about 3.2% from a year earlier, compared with annual declines of 7.3% in September and 17% in August.
• Gold advanced to a record for the third time this week after Sri Lanka's Central Bank purchasing bullion and the dollar extending its decline, spurring investors to find an alternative. Sri Lanka bought 10 metric tons from the International Monetary Fund for about $375 million, following India, Russia and Mauritius in the rush for gold. The metal, which typically moves inversely to the dollar, touched $1,195 an ounce.
• China's foreign-exchange reserves face a "triple whammy" as inflation, oversupply and the "inevitable" decline of the dollar threaten to erode the value of its holdings of US Treasuries, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the Chinese Central Bank.