- Juncker: Greece has met the conditions for aid
- Schaeuble: Greek bailout still depends on PSI
- Venizelos expecting strong participation in PSI
- US Jan PCE inflation +2.4% vs +2.3% exp
- Personal income +0.3% vs +0.5% exp
- Personal spending +0.2% vs +0.4% exp
- Initial jobless claims 351K vs 355K exp
- ISM manufacturing 52.4 vs 54.5 exp
- Bernanke wraps up Humfrey Hawkins – highlights
- Axel Weber says euro to weaken
- Fed’s Raskin: balance sheet reduction unlikely before 2015
- Handelsblatt: German EcoMin says increasing firewall “not up for debate”
- IMF: European crisis averted but sovereign stresses remain
- Spain backtracks on deficit targets
- Fed’s Lockhart: US economy gaining strength
- Van Romput re-elected as EC leader
- US 5-year yields hit highest of 2012
- European periphery yields down sharply
- WTI hits $110 on reports of Saudi pipeline explosion
- S&P 500 up 0.6% to 1374
- AUD leads, CHF lags
EUR/USD opened at 1.3325 in NY but fell below 1.33 and below the 100 dma to 1.3282 early in US trading after the disappointing PCE data and ‘no default’ decision from the ISDA. It recovered to 1.3335 but fell back to 1.3305 on the soft ISM numbers. Afternoon trading slowed, leaving it at 1.3310.
USD/JPY ran up to 81.30 in anticipation of a strong ISM reading but stumbled back to 80.95 afterwards then consolidated around 81.10 in the afternoon.
Cable fell as low as 1.5927 post-ISM but bounced to 1.5975, then slowly tracked to 1.5945/50.
Commodity currencies rode high into NY trading and AUD/USD continued to stride higher to above 1.08. USD/CAD narrowly took out yesterday’s lows, touching a fresh low since Sept.
