• South Korean authorities buy dollars to stem won’s rise -Traders
  • Japan govt considering introducing quake recovery tax – Nikkei
  • ECB’s Weber: Better if Ireland isolates bank deposits, lowers burden on its taxpayers and makes creditors participate in losses
  • Portugal 2010 budget deficit 8.6%/GDP, versus government target of 7.3%
  • Portuguese FinMin: Talks with Eurostat changed calculation method on deficit for 2010
  • Japan chief cabinet secretary: Considering evacuation zone on day-to-day basis, no need to widen it for now
  • France’s Lagarde: French public debt was 7.0% of GDP in 2010, better than official target of 7.7%
  • Euro zone March inflation estimated at 2.6% y/y, stronger than median forecast of 2.3%
  • UK Nationwide March house prices +0.5% m/m, someway better than median forecast of -0.1%
  • German February retail sales -0.3% m/m, +1.1% y/y, someway weaker than median forecasts +0.4%, +1.8% respectively
  • German March s.a. jobless total -55,000 to 3.005 mln, better than median -25,000. Unemployment rate down to 7.1% from 7.3% in February, better than median forecast of 7.2%
  • French February producer prices +0.8% m/m, pretty much in line with median forecast +0.7%
  • Italy February PPI +0.5% m/m, +5.3% y/y, weaker than median forecasts of +0.7%, +5.6% respectively
  • BOE: UK lenders expect to increase credit availability to households in Q2 after steady Q1
  • IMF: Says implementation of Ireland’s programme on target despite the uncertain political environment

Europe’s single currency has had a decent morning, making across the board gains. EUR/USD up at 1.4215 from early 1.4150 having been as high as 1.4233. EUR/JPY up at 117.85 from early 117.00, EUR/CHF up at 1.3005 from early 1.2970.

Asian sovereign buying got the ball rolling just as Europe sat down at their desks. Euro bulls had little in the way of meaninful resistance until meeting up with well-touted sell orders in the 1.4190/00 area. Quite a tussle ensued there. But the euro bulls had their cause aided along the way by better than expected German jobs data and stronger than expected euro zone inflation data. .

The BIS turned up selling in the 1.4220’s and was joined by Russia. Hedge fund selling was also noticeable above 1.4220 and we topped out at 1.4233.

USD/JPY hardly changed at 82.83. Very narrow range bound. Talk buy orders 82.50/60, light stops below. More sell stops through 82.25. Topside looks messy. Decent sell orders seen starting at 83.25, but also talk of stops through 83.30 (the post earthquake spike high)

Cable down at 1.6080 from early 1.6100. But inbetween we did see a decent rally right off the bat. Better than expected Nationwide house price data and decent buying at the 08:00 GMT fix enabled cable to reach session high of 1.6151 before turning south.

Buying of the EUR/GBP cross didn’t help cable’s cause any. The cross is up at .8845 from early .8785. We got the expected reports of the Bundesbank turning up to do their usual month end buying.