- Australia’s Gillard: Stable and effective government continues
- Japan senior govt official: PM Kan wants to work with ruling party on economy. Ruling party panel to compile economy steps proposal by Aug 26
- Japan DPJ official: Not optimistic about yen rise, job conditions. Need to take comprehensive economic steps
- Japan FinMin Noda told by PM Kan to continue watching markets
- Euro zone Aug flash manufacturing PMI 55.0. Down from 56.7 in July and lower than median forecast of 56.2. Services PMI 55.6, down slightly from 55.8 in July and pretty much in line with median forecast of 55.5. Composite 56.1, down from 56.7 in July and below median forecast of 56.4
- German govt source: German cabinet will pass bank restructuring bill including bank charge plan on Wednesday
- Cameron economy to take pounding. Traders turn bearish sterling - Bloomberg article
Pretty slow Monday. AUD/USD seeing most net change at end of the morning, presently up at .8965 from early .8910. Real money noted buying early. Later a UK clearer reported selling good clip of GBP/AUD.
Reports SAB Miller to bid for Fosters helping lend AUD some support.
EUR/USD at 1.2705 hardly changed from early 1.2715. Reached session low 1.2683 in the wake of weak European PMI data, but reported Asian buy orders down around 1.2680 held the line. On topside, buy stops said to be gathering around 1.2740.
Cable at 1.5545 marginally lower from early 1.5565. Initially the pairing rallied well, tripping stops through 1.5600 and getting as high as 1.5620.
Talk of decent 1.5640/50 sell orders (including sovereign interest) and a bearish little article on sterling from Bloomberg (see above) helped reverse course.
UK clearer selling decent clip of GBP/AUD helped accelerate resultant sell-off. Got as low as 1.5529 before UK corporate buy interest provided much needed support.
USD/JPY at 85.35 didn’t move. Lots of Japanese official rhetoric which didn’t amount to a hill of beans.
