- China’s YoY CPI fell to 3.2% in February
- Australia posted an unexpected trade deficit of AUD670 million in January
- Japan M2 +2.9% YoY
- FT: Deutsche took as much as EUR10 billion in emergency ECB funding
- Greek debt restructure results due for release shortly; some expect a 95% take-up
- Nikkei +2%, other regional bourses +0.8% on average
- Gold $1705/oz, Oil $106.75/bbl
It’s been a fairly quiet session with many players staying away ahead of the Greek debt restructure results which are due in a little under an hour. The 95% take-up number might be a bit misleading as that also includes some who had no choice but to agree. The low Chinese CPI showed that the Chinese seem to have inflation under control, this means that they can now ease monetary policy through the RRR if their economy warrants a boost. Australian data was again poor but just like yesterday, the dip-buyers emerged in reasonable force.
USD/JPY was the main mover today as the risk-on sentiment engendered by the reportedly good Greek result helping fuel a strong rise on the Nikkei and some substantial buying of USD/JPY and EUR/JPY. Once again the recent highs at 81.90 are capping the USD/JPY pair but dips have also been very shallow. Ranges: 81.49/89
AUD/USD opened near 1.0640 and traded quietly until the poor trade data. The slowdown in Chinese imports which was evident in their data recently, has now started to show up in the Australian numbers. AUD/USD fell quickly below 1.0620 but once again the dip-buyers responded with some force. The low Chinese CPI will increase the liklihood of futher RRR cuts and this is generally seen as being positive for the AUD. Ranges: 1.0612/63
EUR/USD has had less than a 30 pip range with many players staying away ahead of the Greek announcement and tonights NFP. Overall range 1.3256/83
Cable 1.5808/32; EUR/CHF 1.2050/58
