In relatively orderly forex trade in Asia overnight the USD has made some marginal gains. We had some interesting comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The Premier said he would deliver on the promise of 8% growth in 2009, adding the Chinese Government might roll out an extra stimulus package if needed to meet that goal. At the same time Wen Jiaboa said he was monitoring the situation in the US economy and that he was concerned about the safety of Chinese assets there, which he called on Washington to protect.
Obviously the market will be looking out for the SNB today, after they intervened aggressively yesterday to weaken the swiss franc.
Not a huge amount of important data out today in Europe:
07:30 GMT: BOF retail survey
07:45 GMT: French January C/A
08:00 GMT: Spanish Q-4 labor costs
08:15 GMT: Swiss producer and import prices expected -0.2% m/m, -1.2% y/y
09:00 GMT: Italian Q-4 labor costs
10:00 GMT: Euro zone January retail sales expected +0.2% m/m, -2.3% y/y
10:00 GMT: Euro-zone Q-4 labor costs expected +3.6%
13/14th: Group of 20 Finance ministers meet in Horsham England.
