- S&P lowers EFSF to AA+ from AAA
- EFSF’s Regling says lending capacity will not diminish
- Portuguese 10-year yield jumps nearly 200bps to record 14.40%
- ESRB Draghi: Greece not delivering on Oct commitments
- Draghi: “satisfied” with LTRO thus far
- No Greek debt swap negotiations until Wed
- Greek PM Papademos still “confident” deal will be reached
- S&P’s Kraemer: Greece running out of time
- France sells 51-week bills at 0.406% vs 0.454% last week
- Spain’s Rajoy supports financial transaction tax
- Bundesbanker: forget QE-euro, we’ve already gone too far
- Huntsman quits campaign, endorses Romney
- Saudi oil minister calls for $100 oil
- Canadian Dec existing home sales +4.6%
- Handelsblatt: German govt expects 0.75% growth in 2012
- Canada’s TSX gains 0.2%, US closed
- DAX +1.2%, CAC +0.9%, FTSE +0.4%
- Gold +$13 to $1643
- CAD is top performer, CHF lags
US markets were closed for Martin Luther King Jr Day but the newsflow out of Europe was steady. Unfortunately, that did not transfer into market moves.
EUR/USD entered North American trading at 1.2672 and traded in a tidy 30-pip range from 1.2658/88. The EFSF downgrade was the lone headline that prompted any trading, as EUR/USD fell 15 pips.
Canadian markets were open and rallies in gold and oil boosted the loonie. Selling in USD/CAD was steady, peaking around the London fix as the pair fell to 1.0165 before a late bounce to 1.0182.
Otherwise, we close out North American trading almost where we began, and little changed on the day. Jamie is back tomorrow.
