- Portuguese 10-year yield rises above 17%
- US personal spending flat, incomes up 0.5% in December; core PCE price index 1.8% y/y
- Eurogroup’s Juncker: Strongly opposed to Greek budget takeover
- Merkel: Greek debt not discussed at summit since debt swap not finalized
- USD/JPY triggers stops below 76.50 as US yields tumble
- German FinMin reads Greece the riot act
- Fed’s Plosser: FOMC statement too pessimistic; rates should rise this year
- Dallas Fed manufacturing index 15.3 in January from -0.3% in December
- ESM to come into force in July; Treaty to be ratified at later date
- Spanish regions downgraded by S&P
- Fed senior loan officers survey shows rise in demand for loans
- Nowotny: ECB must guard against deflation as well as inflation
- US Treasury to borrow $444 bln in Q1 of 2012, $97 bln below earlier estimates
- Sarkosy says Greek budget overseer has been rejected
- Van Rompuy: Fiscal Compact won’t be signed until March summit
EUR/USD was knocked sharply in early US trade as renewed Greek debt jitters and fresh focus on Portugal as yields broke north of 17% combined to undermine the euro. Equities were weak around the globe in early US trade but as the session wore on, US equities stabilized and bounced back from support at 1300 in the S&P. we end the day only marginally lower at 1313, down 0.25% after being down well over a percent early in the day,
Commodity currencies benefited from calming of risk aversion during the US session. AUD rebounded to end at 1.0593 from 1.0520 lows.
EUR/CHF eased to within 40 pips of the SNB’s 1.20 floor this morning before edging a bit higher during the afternoon. We end at 1.2055.
