- Moody’s, in a quarterly report, says UK’s triple A sovereign debt rating “resilient”
- Nationwide August consumer confidence 63 from previous 61, highest read in 15 months
- German August final CPI unchanged at +0.2% m/m, flat y/y
- ECB’s Noyer World economic outlook has improved. Improvement faster than expected. Stability in forex markets is important, Noyer saying “We will be very attentive to that”
- German company insolvencies rise 14.8% y/y in first half 2009
- Shanghai share index closes up 0.6%
- ECB’s Trichet reiterates crisis not yet over
- UK July visible trade deficit -£6.479 bn, Non EU trade defcit -£3.925 bn, worse than median forecasts of -£6.25 bn and -£3.45 bn respectively
EUR/USD sits at 1.4495, little changed from an early 1.4485, the market effectively consolidating recent USD losses in the pairing.
An early rally got to a session high 1.4518 before a number of notable names entered the market and slapped the pairing back down. China, Russia and India were notable sellers above 1.4500. Infact China continued selling below 1.4500 and we had reports of them still offloading down at 1.4480.
There was also talk of BIS buying in the 1.4490/95 area, probably again on behalf of smaller Asian sovereigns as seen Tuesday.
Talk of real money buy orders down at 1.4450/60 helped the pairing steady at a 1.4466 session low. Sources now note sell stops gathered around 1.4440.
Comments made by ECB’s Noyer (see above) will have been taken as verbal intervention by many.
Cable at 1.6510 little changed from an early 1.6520. Inbetween though we’ve been as high as 1.6565 and as low as 1.6457.
NIESR declaring the UK recession over, a rise in Nationwide August consumer confidence to 63 from previous 61 (highest read in 15 months) and Moody’s comments regarding UK’s triple A rating will have been supportive, while the proximity of tomorrow’s BOE rate decision will have added a note of caution and curtailed the early gains.
