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To: Alan Whirlwind who wrote (21009)	10/7/1998 4:53:00 PM
From: Giraffe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116874

Wow - I notice the word 'panic' was used twice Wednesday October 7, 4:28 pm Eastern Time (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.) IMM currency futures end up sharply, yen explodes CHICAGO, Oct 7 (Reuters) - IMM currency futures closed erratic pit trading sharply higher, with the yen exploding upward to huge daily gains in quick trade. Volume in yen was estimated at a heavy 64,645 contracts after hectic action that brokers said featured periods of fast-market trade tied to near-panicked interbank conditions. December yen futures settled up $0.000666 at $0.008387 after it backed off from the session peak at $0.008500. Wednesday's single-session yen surge was largest in the life of the December 1998 contract and among the biggest one-day, unidirectional swings in recent memory, brokers said. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange said it had no records based on the biggest net daily change for currencies. Players contacted in futures and cash markets linked the yen's stunning rise to persistent rumors that a large hedge fund continued to liquidate big short yen positions. ''I think it's got to be a huge underlying position...this hedge fund is closing out,'' said Earl Johnson, foreign exchange economist, Bank of Montreal. ''It's almost a panic move.'' ''It's a lot of that (rumor) and it's just been a lot of riding the wave,'' said a floor broker at a commission house. ''After a while I just stopped making sense of it,'' the broker added. Johnson also said the yen surged based on more talk of Japanese fund repatriation to bolster banks' capital bases as well as general optimism that Japanese lawmakers might make progress on banking and economic reforms. Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party planned to submit to parliament on Wednesday bills to recapitalize weak but viable banks by using public funds, a party official said. ''So psychologically, the market does think they're finally making some progress,'' Johnson added. (Note: this article is ''in progress''; there will likely be an update soon.)