- Japan ex-BOJ Hirano: Weak yen positive for Japan’s economy
- JAL files for bankruptcy protection
- Cadbury board recommends Kraft offer of 840p
- UK December CPI +0.6% m/m, +2.9% y/y, demonstrably stronger than median forecasts +0.3%, +2.6% respectively
- Premier Wen: China to deal with inflationary expectations this year. China must be prepared to deal with trade frictions. Pro-active fiscal policies to expand domestic demand
- ZEW institute January German economic sentiment index 47.2 vs 50.4 in December, worse than median forecast of 50.0
- Moody’s: Greece’s fiscal programme addresses short-term challenges. Greek stability plan is consistent wirth current A2 rating. Greek outlook remains negative due to uncertainty on implementation of govt plan
The pure volume of information the market had to digest this morning was immense. Everyman and his dog wanted to voice their opinion on a myriad of topics, and did.
Suffice it to say the rating agency’s have been busy making cautious remarks regarding deficits being run by likes of Greece, Spain, Portugal, UK and that has helped lift the USD.
EUR/USD lower, down at 1.4300 from early 1.4400. Talk of sell orders up at 1.4410/20 and BIS selling up at 1.4400/10 helped cap the upside early. Then a combination of rating agency wariness surrounding euro zone budget deficits, strong eur/gbp sales and weak German ZEW data sent the pairing spiralling lower.
Talk of buy orders down at 1.4285/95 lending tenuous support so far. Said to be lumpy stops lined up through 1.4280.
Cable started around 1.6400 and managed a session high 1.6457, underpinned by news Cadbury’s board recommneding acceptance of new improved Kraft offer and much stronger than expected inflation data.
From there its all been down hill, Fitch Rating managing to rekindle UK budget deficit concerns. We’re presently at 1.6335, within an ace of the session low 1.6330.
USD/JPY up at 90.85 from early 90.35. Interesting that pair got down to 90.32 low, as there had been conflicting reports of large sell stops through 90.30, but also at the same time talk of decent buy orders lined at 90.30 down to 90.00. Would have made for interesting viewing.
As had been widely anticipated JAL have filed for bankruptcy, while market will have noted ex-BOJ official’s comments (see above)
