"It is one of those strange moves because we can't attribute it to a payrolls report or Japanese economic news, " said Sean Callow, senior currency strategist at Westpac in Sydney.

WSJ: Nikkei Jumps As Dollar Surges Through ?100

The oddity is that most banks already hold considerably more than the new minimum requirement - but the reason they already pass this threshold is because we continue to live in strange and perilous times, with many Western economies parlously weak and the financial system still stressed.

BBC: Banks agree minimum liquidity rules

The strange part is that because we didn't know what time we were going out, we sat around trying to do normal things.

BBC: SPORT | Football | Europe | Lawrenson recalls Heysel nightmare

People who do science are strange, because 95% of what we do doesn't work.

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