- Greek bond swap offer “going well”, with “very high” takeup rate – Greek govt official
- Italian/German 10 year govt bond yield spread narrows through 300 bps. Presently at 298 bps. First time below 300 bps since September 2011
- Greek December unemployment 21.0%, fractionally higher than 20.9% in November
- Japanese senior ruling party official: Welcomes BOJ’s February easing but important for it to continue acting. Expect BOJ to continue sending message to markets if it has strong determination to fight deflation
- Swiss National Bank reports consolidated profit of 13.5 bln swiss francs in 2011. Profit is due to a rise in the value of the bank’s gold holdings and it’s foreign currency positions
- SNB’s Jordan: Franc cap had a major impact and helped stabilise 2011 results
- Bank of France business climate indicator for industrial sector falls to 95 in February from 96 in January, weaker than median forecast of unchanged 96
- Bank of France confirms estimate for flat Q1 GDP growth
- French January trade deficit -5.32 bln, slightly weaker than Reuter’s median forecast of -5.2 bln
- Swiss February CPI +0.3% m/m, -0.9% y/y, pretty much in line with Reuter’s median forecasts +0.2%, -0.9% respectively
Optimism abounds, fuelled by talk Greek bond swap offer is ‘going well’ with ‘very high’ take up rate, and by rumour overnight in Asia that Chinese close to announcing another RRR cut of upto 50 bps.
European stocks, gold, oil, US treasury yields all firmer.
EUR/USD up at 1.3227 from early 1.3175, having been as high as 1.3233 (EBS) after buy stops tripped through 1.3210.
EUR/JPY up at 107.90 from early 107.15.
Cable up at 1.5790 from early 1.5765, having run into China selling up around 1.5830 (as reported on Forexlive when it was 1.5820. Who’s betta than us?)
USD/JPY up at 81.55 from early 81.30, Japanese corporates seen buying this morning. Sell orders seen clustered 81.60/70 and have capped rally so far. Looking vulnerable though. Above there well documented barrier interest at 82.00.
