EUR/USD sits at 1.3540, a little firmer from where it closed out Tuesday in North America. Yesterday saw the confluence of numerous negative factors serving to ratchet up risk aversion. Weak German Ifo data; comments from Harvard’s Rogoff that he sees sovereign defaults coming; ongoing Greek worries amid strikes andbank downgrades; slump in US consumer confidence, were some of the factors at play.
Overnight has seen further Asian sovereign purchases which have lent some support. It should be noted though that Asian sovereign purchases did little to slow the recent swoon.
Euro zone data today:
07:00 GMT: German Q4 GDP (final) expected flat q/q, nsa -1.7% y/y, wda -2.4%
07:00 GMT: German GfK consumer confidence survey for March expected 3.0 from 3.2
09:00 GMT: Italian retail sales for December expected +0.2% m/m, -0.9% y/y
10:00 GMT: Euro zone industrial new orders for December expected -1.0% m/m,
