• Greece’s budget deficit revised up to 13.6% of GDP in 2009 -govts projection 12.7% of GDP – Eurostat
  • Deficit revision does not change the reduction target for 2010 – Greek Ministry
  • Eurostat expresses reservation on quality of data reported by Greece
  • Japan’s sovereign creditworthiness at risk from rising government debt – Fitch
  • UK Match Retails Sales 0.4% exp. 0.6%; February revised up from 2.1% to 2.5%
  • UK March Car Production Rises 90.2% y/y – SSMT
  • UK 2009/2010 Borrowing Comes in Below Treasury Forecast
  • March Mortgage Approvals Up, M4 Lowest Since Feb 2003
  • EZ April Flas Composire PMI 57.3, exp 56.1
  • USD/CNY NDFs under heavy pressure as players speculate that China is about to move on Yuan

[Theme] – its all about the Euro, again. Markets were very steady on the European open with EUR/USD and GBP/USD even gaining a little but it wasn’t long into the session when the bad news (is there anything else) on Greece started coming out in a rush. A blow out in bond spreads, CDS prices but the killer was a revision to Greece’s 2009 budget deficit a full 1% to 13.6% of GDP – that sent EUR/USD reeling. No such thing as a bounce since. Other pairs tracked EUR/USD lower but not to the same degree. Late Asia saw a big go at CNY NDFs perhaps suggesting something at last is about to break here.

[EUR/USD] tried to rally in early London but could only make it to 1.3422 before the “bad” news came rushing out. A revision to Greece’s 2009 budget deficit sent the single currency reeling with no sign of a recovery so far. Intraday range 1.3331-1.3422; last at 1.3335.

[GBP/USD] saw an initial rush higher on the open as stops were triggered above 1.5450 but reported sovereign selling interest just above capped and the pair fell back down into the 1.5420s. GBP/USD got another fillip on a revision to February’s retail sales number notwithstanding the March number was a little worse than expected. Once EUR/USD started to collapse GBP/USD got dragged back below the figure. EUR/GBP seems to be boxed into a 0.8650-0.8700 with good interests on either side. GBP/USD intraday range 1.5374-1.5473; last at 1.5380.

[USD/JPY] was heavy in Asia on a slumping Nikkei but as the local bourse started to pare some of its losses after lunch, the pair recovered back to 93.00. USD/JPY got a boost from the Fitch sovereign creditworthiness comment racing to the highs of the day before heading back towards 93.00 (EUR/JPY sales) as EUR/USD tumbled on the Greece budget revision news. Intraday range 92.74-93.36; last at 93.00.

[AUD/USD] rallied strongly after lunch in Asia as the picture looked a little brighter with stocks paring some of their steep earlier losses. Made it above 0.9300 in early London with EUR/USD and GBP/USD looking a little brighter then fell back into the 0.9350s as Greece tumbled. Intraday range 0.9246-0.9304; last at 0.9254.

Stocks fell in Asia but closed well off their lows – Nikkei -1.27%. European bourses are down nearly 1% across the board. US futures markets are down nearly 0.7% in pre trading. Gold is down around $4.50 from the NY close.