with japan reeling from the tsunami and the earthquake, this makes exports even more expensive for japanese companies, and the cost of importing services to help in the cleanup effort more expensive too. the intervention has that effect in that there is a positive side of yen appreciation, downward pressure on commodity prices in yen terms. another reason i think the authorities objective is not to engineer yen weakness because there are positives as well as negative aspects of that. i think the objective is very much to engineer stability and stability in certainty is probably the best the best they can deliver for the export sector going forward from here. adam cole, head of foreign currency strategy at rbc, thank you very much for joining us there with your take on the yen. let s get another look at how european stock markets have been fairing and reacting to those currency moves as pauline was telling us, things fairing quite well in hong kong and also