- IMF said to push for resources plan by Feb G20 meeting
- Fitch senior director: Two notch downgrade of Italy is an option
- German auction result
- Portugal auction result
- Moody’s upgrades Indonesia’s sovereign rating to Baa3 from Ba1: outlook stable
- UK December jobless claims rise +1,200, better than expected +10,000. Claimant rate unchanged at 5%, as expected. Ilo jobless rises 118,000 in 3 months to Nov to total 2.685 mln. Rate up at 8.4% vs median forecast 8.3%
- Swiss January ZEW investor sentiment -50.1 from -72.0 in December
- Hungary EconMin State Sec: Govt interested in settling legal dispute with EU Commission as soon as possible
If you like your markets volatile, then you’ll have been in your element this morning. That was just plain nasty, with price action whipsawing all over the shop.
EUR/USD up at 1.2820 from early 1.2765, having been as high as 1.2844. It’s been far from one-way traffic though. Early rally, with Middle East and Russia notable buyers, saw us peek fleetingly over 1.2800.
Reserve Bank of India was a notable seller 1.2800+ and we drifted back below said level. This drift turned into a mini collapse when comment from Fitch official, that two notch downgrade of Italy is an option, hit the wires.
Trailing sell stops through 1.2760 were tripped and we quickly sold off into the 1.2730s. Talk of Asian central bank buy interest lined up at 1.2730 helped lend support and we gradually ticked back higher, once again Middle Eastern and Russian buying notable.
Things looked to have quitened down, when all of a sudden news of the IMF resources plan hit the wires. We quickly took out touted stops in the 1.2815/30 area on the way to the session high 1.2844. We’ve since drifted marginally lower.
Talk of real money sell orders lined up now at 1.2850/60.
UPDATE: In the time it’s taken me to write this commentary EUR/USD has gone from 1.2820 to 1.2780. The fun and games continues. Glad I’m off home……
