- UK Sept manufacturing PMI up 51.1
- EU Final Sept mfg PMI 48.5
- German Sep Final mfg PMI 50.3 9 (from 50.9 in Aug, lowest since Sep 2009)
- French final Sept mfg PMI falls to 48.2 (from 49.1 Aug)
- Italian Sept mfg PMI up to 48.3 (up from 47.0 in Aug)
- Spanish Sept mfg PMI 43.7 (down from 45.3 in Aug)
- Japan MOF’s Nakao: Past interventions were to curb excessive moves
- UK’s Osborne: Rejects deficit funded tax cuts
- Turkish Fin Min: Inflation may rise in coming months
- IMF’s Zhu: Europe making progress on debt problems
- EU Commissioner Rehn: Options to enhance EFSF include ECB, some not..
A rather mixed morning with Europe opening with further equity falls and a beleagured EUR/USD following more negative weekend press for Greece and the EU debt crisis.
Bids from sovereign names countered real money, leveraged and corporate sellers, with EUR/USD grinding higher despite weak European PMI data. The weekend gap from 1.3384-1.3348 was almost filled. Range was 1.3316-82.
GBP/USD headed higher from early lows of 1.5514 on talk of a strong PMI print of 53 against expectations of around 48.5. The number came in at 51.1 , but a possible “fat finger” on the machines or an overly long positioned market was caught wrong footed with cable spiking again under 1.5500.
1.5550 is now halting further upward momentum as EUR/GBP continues to build higher on talk of possible QE approval this week. The cross had pulled up from 0.8565 to 0.8614 (barring the PMI spike to 0.8634) .
USD/JPY couldn’t hang on to gains seen in Asia, falling to 76.76 on cross sales from model accounts with EUR/JPY down to 102.24 picking up to 102.95 later as EUR/USD hit the highs.
USD/JPY has importer bids 76.50/60 and offers up at 77.25/30. Buy stops up through 77.35 and 77.50
AUD/USD saw sovereign buying around 0.9615/20 after hitting a year’s low of 0.9595, but struggled to break through offers 0.9655/60. Sell stops are now sitting down through 0.9590.
Equities have partially recovered with Stoxx down around 2%, FTSE down 1.5% and the CAC and DAX both down over 2%
