- Bernanke casts a skeptical eye on jobs improvements, argues for ‘continued’ accommodation
- US pending home sales -0.5% vs +1.0% exp
- Dallas Fed manufacturing index 10.8 vs 16.0 exp
- ECB’s Noyer: We may have to live with crisis measures for some time
- Fed’s Plosser: US econ to grow 3% this year
- DJ: IEA says high oil prices could push EU back into recession
- Draghi sees improvements in eurozone
- Schaueble says Europe won’t agree to transaction tax
- Swiss fin min says would like EUR/CHF at 1.35-1.40
- S&P 500 hits fresh 3 year high, up 1.4% to 1416
- EUR leads, JPY lags
The euro touched the highest since February after Bernanke’s speech. EUR/USD was capped by offers at 1.3340 until Europe closed, afterwards it was quiet until a the SNB peg talk nudged the pair above. Later, US stocks broke last week’s highs, sparking a rally to 1.3368.
The script was nearly identical in cable, which initially stalled out around 1.5900 but chopped higher to 1.5957 before sliding back to 1.5922 at the European close. Afterward, the melt up resumed to 1.5971, last.
USD/JPY wasn’t quite sure how to take Bernanke, touching 83.00 before the Bernanke comments tehn tumbling to 82.60. The remainder was a chop within that range as better risk appetite competed with broad USD selling.
EUR/CHF fell as low as 1.2045 in Europe but recovered to 1.2060 on the Swiss fin min comments.
Gold hit a two-week high of $1693.
