- Eurogroup at regular meeting on May 17 will check if all members ready to provide funds to Greece – Euro zone source
- Greek FinMin: No additional austerity measures in 2010. Greek government has not yet decided to trigger aid mechanism
- German FinMin: Consequences of Greek default are unforeseeable, cannot be allowed to happen
- German SPD MP says party will not go along with “fast track” parliamentary approval of Greek aid
- French debt agency AFT: No risk of Greek default
- ECB’s Noyer: Imposing new ratios and taxes on banks could penalise financing of economy
- EIA – U.S. weekly crude stocks up 1.9 mln bbls to 355.9 mln vs forecast of .3 mln bbl draw
- Belgian consumer sentiment rises to -8 in April from -13 in March
- IMF raises 2010 world GDP growth forecast to 4,2% from January’s 3.9%; keeps 2011 view at 4.3%
- IMF chief economist: If not contained, fiscal troubles in advanced economies could lead to “debt explosion”
- German Landesbank BayernLB says it has cut business ties to Goldman Sachs given SEC investigation
Session got off to a pretty hectic start but things slowed fairly quickly and the afternoon has been pretty much a non-event.
At the end of the day not a whole lot of change. EUR/USD started under pressure. We reached a session low 1.3359 before recovering. BIS, Asian sovereign and large corporate among noted buyers under 1.3400 which is where we sit presently. Buy orders noted 1.3350/60, stops below 1.3330. Sell orders 1.3440/50. Ongoing worries surrounding Greece continue to negate appreciable rally.
USD/JPY at 93.15, where it started out day. We’ve been confined to an uninspired narrow range. Lower US bond yields helped negate any rally. Japanese exporter sell orders noted up at 93.40/50.
Cable touch frmer on the day, presently at 1.5410 from early 1.5385. Talk sell orders 1.5440/50. A US investment bank came out with cable sell recommendation around 1.5440 with stop above 1.5500.
