- EU’s Van Rompuy: ‘No easy fix’ for debt crisis
- Italy Monti: ECB mandate has room to allow intervention to stabilise bond spreads. Important that countries which receive ECB help should not waste it as has happened in past, including in Italy
- SNB’s Danthine: Switzerland facing rising risk of default, correction. Rising rates, lower growth could raise default risk
- More Danthine: Swiss franc is still overvalued. Interest rate policy not available at present
- Swiss Economy Minister: H2 will be more difficult for Swiss economy. Franc fair value remains around 1.3000
- German FinMin: Euro will be a bit more stable next year, but its’ troubles won’t be over. Expects euro zone to exist in the same form a year from now
- Thomson Reuters fx volumes fall sharply in August - Reuters
- Swiss CPI flat m/m, -0.5% y/y, touch weaker than Reuter’s median forecasts of +0.1%, -0.4% respectively
- Euro zone August final services PMI 47.2, down from flash 47.5
- Euro zone retail sales -0.2% m/m, -1.7% y/y, in line with median forecasts
- Germany’s Schaeuble urges Dutch voters to shun anti-euro parties
- BOJ board’s Miyao: BOJ stands ready to act if needed, after scrutinising economy, price outlook
- Japan ruling party draft manifesto calls for foreign bond purchases by BOJ to counter yen rise and deflation
- Eurozone demand 6 day week for Greece (leaked Troika letter) - The Guardian
- Brinkmanship as Spain warns over bailout terms – AEP at The Telegraph
- Interest rate cut looms with Reserve unease over tumbling iron price – The Sydney Morning Herald
Funny sort of morning. Risk off early changed to risk on late in the morning session. Hard to really pinpoint any convincing triggers for the turnaround. Suffice it to say there remains a huge deal of uncertainly surrounding tomorrows ECB rate decision/Draghi press conference.
EUR/USD sits at 1.2545, 10 pips firmer than the 1.2535 that greeted me. We drifted everso slowly lower early against the general risk off backdrop. Talk had buy orders clustered 1.2500/20 and they just about held the line (session low 1.2502) Then as European stocks turned round, so EUR/USD recovered. The recovery it has to be said was a darn sight quicker than the sell-off had been .
USD/JPY unchanged at 78.40.
Cable up at 1.5903 from early 1.5860. Inbetween though we saw a dip to 1.5826 initally. Sovereign buying helped fuel the subsequent recovery. EUR/GBP down slightly at .7890 from early .7902.
