• US Personal income an spending each rise +0.4% in April
  • University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rises to 74.3 (final) in May from 72.4; stronger than expected
  • US April pending home sales fall 26.8 y/y in April, 11.6% m/m
  • German inflation drops in May to 2.4% y/y; lower than expected
  • Greek central bank: Will be able to repay debt in full without reprofiling
  • Greek political party heads meet but fail to agree on austerity steps
  • Fitch: Japanese fiscal adjustment pace too leisurely
  • Trichet: Inflation to fall below 2% in medium-term; inflation and the euro are stable
  • BOE’s Dale: Not confident about strength of recovery
  • EU’s Rehn: Greece running out of time to reach budget deal
  • Greek PM: Will do what it takes to save Greece with or without consent of other parties
  • US 10 year note rises 1.3 bp to 3.07%
  • S&P 500 up 0.5% as of 2:40 pm
  • Gold rises $12 to $1535

It was more about month-end (or near-month-end) flows and postilion squaring ahead of multiple bank holidays on Monday than it was about the fundamentals today. EUR/USD made two trips to the 1.4300 area today, one early in the day and once again as Europe closed for the day.

News flow remains bearish for the euro but the market is comfortable in assuming a deal with the IMF will ultimately get done between Greece and the IMF, just as it assumes a US debt ceiling hike will take place.

USD/JPY slipped as low as 80.70 on the combination of the Japanese credit outlook downgrade by Fitch and more poor US data which suggests the Fed will keep rates at rock-bottom for some time to come. It ends at 80.85.

USD/CHF fell to a record low of 0.8511 (holding above a presumed 0.8500 barrier) and ends at 0.8537. EUR/CHF fell to its own record low of 1.2189 as traders see few attractive places to hide from slowing global growth and the European sovereign debt debacle.

Things are so bad out there that traders are buying GBP, driving it briefly above 1.6500. It fell back after Spencer Dale said the next year or two look pretty putrid…

AUD benefited from continued inflows from Asia as reserve diversification boosts not only the euro…It closes at 1.0680.