- SNB’s Roth: In FT interview says “We have clearly shown what our commitment is and the market has acted accordingly” adding “we have a clear strategy…..if market comes back to the situation presented.” i.e Swissy strengthens, we’ll intervene again.
- BOJ: To buy JPY 1.0 trillion of subordinated debt issued by banks to bolster capital bases.
- UK’s DCLG: UK house prices fall -11.5% y/y in January, slightly better than median forecast of -11.7%
- DIW institute: German economy will probably shrink 2.2% in Q-1 2009.
- ZEW insitute: German economic sentiment index (March) -3.5 versus -5.8 in February (better than median forecast of -8.0) Current conditions indicator -89.4 versus -86.2 in February (in line with median forecast of -90.0) ZEW says ECB rate cut, lower prices for raw materials probably explain increased optimism. Feels bottom of recession likely to be seen this summer.
Very slow start to the morning. Some excitment when it was announced BOJ’s Shirakawa was to give an unexpected 10:00 GMT press conference. Some thought the BOJ might just pull a fast one and do a SNB and announce their intention to weaken their currency. As it turned out Shirakawa just wanted to talk about BOJ plan to buy subordinated debt issued by banks. Decent USD/JPY buy orders still lined up at 97.50. Talk of knock-out option up at 99.00.
EUR/USD narrow range bound until release of better than expected ZEW data helped lift the pairing over 1.3000, but hasn’t been able to hold gains. Buy orders noted at 1.2940/55, with sell stops on a breech of 1.2940. Sell orders (moderate) seen at 1.3030 and decent-sized sell interest seen at 1.3100.
Cable narrow range bound until buy stops triggered around 1.4070 lifted cable briefly above 1.4100, but back down at 1.4050 presently. Buy orders seen at 1.4000/10 (moderate) with sell stops just below 1.4000 and then decent-sized buy interest at 1.3970/75.
EUR/CHF lower despite Roth’s warning in FT. (see above)
