- BRICs Leaders: Concerned about global economic situation
- German opposition SPD’s Steinmeier: In EU fiscal pact debate government should not presume SPD will give its support when comes to vote
- German March s.a jobless total -18k to 2.841 mln, better than Reuter’s median forecast of -10k. Jobless rate down to 6.7% from 6.8% in February, better than median forecast of unchanged 6.8%
- Euro zone March business climate -0.30 versus -0.16 in February, weaker than Reuter’s median forecast of -0.16. Economic sentiment falls to 94.4 from revised 94.5 in February, weaker than Reuter’s median forecast of 94.6
- Spain/German 10 year govt bond yield spread widens out to 359 bps from early 349
- Ireland’s Eircom applies for court protection to restructure 3.8 bln euros debt
- Greece’s Pasok leader Venizelos: Forthcoming elections will determine Greece’s fate
- UK Nationwide March house prices -1.0% m/m, -0.9% y/y, demonstrably weaker than median forecasts +0.2%, +0.9% respectively
- UK February mortgage approvals 48,986 from 57,899 in January, weaker than Reuter’s median forecast of 50,000. Lowest since June last year
- German FinMin Schaeuble: Debt reduction, not firewall size, is decisive
- French PM Fillon: “Good prospects” for US, Europe accord on oil stocks release. “Don’t expect miracles” from using strategic stocks
- Euro-zone fix would cost 5.1 trillion euros -says new report – Dow Jones
- For Portugal, moment of truth nears – WSJ
Main feature this morning (well I think it’s the main feature) is yen strength. USD/JPY down at 82.18 from early 82.65, EUR/JPY down at 109.17 from 110.05 and GBP/JPY down at 130.50 from 131.45.
Real money, model funds notably loading up with yen throughout the morning.
Buy orders seen clustered 82.00/10 in USD/JPY, sell stops just below there and more through 81.80.
EUR/USD down at 1.3285 from early 1.3320. EUR/JPY selling has weighed. Talk of sell stops now through 1.3270.
Cable down at 1.5880 from early 1.5905. Pairing rallied early, but ran into BIS selling circa 1.5930 and down we came. Poor housing data (see above) won’t have helped matters.
