- PBOC advisor: China willing to keep buying Europe, US govt debt -Dow Jones
- PBOC advisor: Possible for Chinese organisations to invest in European banks – Dow Jones
- ECB continues to buy Italian and Spanish govt bonds
- Japan PM Kan: Forex moves one-sided, will continue to act appropriately
- Italian EconMin Tremonti: European partners have asked for full liberalisation of local public services, privatisations, more flexible labour contracts
- German July wholesale prices -0.6% m/m, +8.2% y/y
- Greek May unemployment 16.6%, up from 15.85 in April
- The Fed is a rogue elephant -AEP at The Telegraph
This week is proving to be truly exhausting. Really thought we were in for a quiet one, should have known better I guess.
Main feature of trading this morning has been weakness in swissy, USD/CHF up at .7415 from early .7275, EUR/CHF up at 1.0520 from around 1.0350. Market wary that SNB is preparing more moves to address burgeoning swiss franc strength. Has been a rumour that SNB preparing a 1% charge on swiss deposits and even talk of a move to peg the franc to the euro.
Major Swiss commerical bank aggressive buyer early and real money seen joining the fray later on.
EUR/USD slightly lower at 1.4190 from early 1.4210. Renewed selling of European banking stocks, especially French ones, brought about an aggressive sell-off. Luckily timely comment from PBOC advisor that Chinese organisations could invest in European banks helped steady a very rocky boat.
USD/JPY sits at 76.65, effectively unchanged on the day. We saw an early dip to 76.30, but buying from a large Japanese trust bank lent decent support. There was even talk of the BOJ having been in the market, but there was never any confirmation.
