- FOMC minutes: Fed staff downgrades economic outlook
- US inventory/sales ratio dips, inventories show largest drop in 17 years
- Canadian housing starts rebound 13.7% in March
- Hildebrand named to replace Roth as SNB chief at beginning of 2010
- Swiss to open talks with US on tax pact; may require referendum
- Fitch joins S&P, cuts Ireland to AA+; leaves on review for potential downgrade
- ECB’s Provopoulos: Global outlook has worsened in recent months
- Canadian FinMin Flaherty: Tomorrow’s employment report “not encouraging”
Markets were closely linked to moves in the equity markets today until the FOMC minutes soured sentiment and upped risk aversion at mid-afternoon in New York. EUR/JPY rebounded as high as 133.15 during the US morning before giving back half of its bounce from 131.00 lows in Europe. We closed at 132.05.
EUR/USD attempted to break out of recent ranges to the topside, spurred by a bounce in stocks and a second day of central bank buys in the mid 1.31s. Downbeat comments from the Greek ECB member as well as from the March 18 FOMC meeting helped send the EUR lower across the board. EUR/USD pulled back to the 1.3220s from 1.3309 highs, retracing all the New York up-move.
USD/JPY triggered stops below 99.45 but rebounded to close at 99.70. The market is nursing some stale longs which look vulnerable ahead of a long holiday weekend ahead.
GBP help up pretty well today despite a modest bounce in EUR/GBP. Dealers note strong demand on dips toward 1.4600. The cross bounced to 0.9048 on short-covering before easing with the rest of the Euro crosses after the Fed. it ended at 0.9022.
