- Moody’s downgrades Greece’s local and foreign currency bond ratings to Ca from Caa1
- Moody’s: Greece faces very significant implementation risk to fiscal, economic reform
- China shouldn’t worry about US debt impasse: PBOC adviser
- Japan business lobby Keidanren: Exchange rate needs to be improved to an appropriate level as Japan needs to earn cash via exports
- France Q3 manufacturing demand outlook+9 vs +8 in Q2
- UK mortgage approvals for home purchase 31,747 in June vs 30,803 in May, down 6% y/y- BBA
- Italian July consumer confidence falls to 103.7 (exp 104.5) against 105.8 in June
- Irish Fin Min: Sale of Bk of Ireland gives strong signal internationally
- Japan parliament approves $25 bln extra budget for disaster relief
- ECB’s Costa: says EU members showed great difficulty in producing robust response to crisis
- German Govt spokesman: Still confident that US will reach a compromise on debt limit
A pretty lacklustre start to the week with Moody’s downgrade greeting Europe at the open. EUR/USD fell to 1.4329 before Russian and Eastern European names bounced the pair to 1.5350. Middle Eastern names then took the bat and pushed through 1.4385 resistance to highs of 1.4406, despite talk of BIS and Chinese offers. Further offers remain towards the Asian high’s of 1.4418 with bids below at 1.4330/40.
Cable was largely uneventful , trading 1.6262-1.6328 but remains soggy as EUR/GBP climbed from 0.8800 to 0.8844. UK mortgage data had little impact , with traders now looking to tomorrow’s Q2 GDP release
USD/JPY remains weighed down by a generally weak dollar, but found support 78.05/10 from a sovereign name. Europe range was 78.05-49
USD/CHF fell to a new all time low of 0.8029, on further safe-haven demand, with talk of bids now 0.8015 ahead of a barrier at 0.8000.
AUD/USD has been largely static, drifting in a 1.0810-30 range after a brief look at $1.0795 as the euro suffered early weakness. Stops are now seen down through 1.0785 and above through 1.0850.
Sept WTI has idled between $98.90-99.50, with Gold making steady gains of around $8 to 1621.75, falling short of the new all time high of $1623.85 set overnight in Asia.
