- Greek vote threatens bailout – WSJ
- Greek conservative opposition leader Samaras calls for snap elections
- Finland’s Europe Minister: Greece’s referendum would be a vote over its euro membership. No Greek bailout package will be deployed if Greece does not carry out reforms
- German parliament leader “irritated” by Greece move
- Italy’s crisis deepens on eurozone slump, bailout doubts – AEP at The Telegraph
- ECB buys Italian bonds
- UK Nationwide house prices +0.4% m/m, +0.8% y/y, better than median forecasts flat, +0.4% respectively
- Swiss October PMI 46.9, weaker than median forecast of 47.7
- UK October manufacturing PMI 47.4, demonstrably weaker than median forecast of 50.0. Lowest read since June 2009
- UK Q3 GDP (prelim) +0.5% q/q, +0.5% y/y, marginally better than Reuters’ median forecasts +0.4%, +0.4% respectively
Risk most definitely off this morning, sharp losses for European stocks, oil, US treasury yields etc etc. You know the story by now. Personally I blame it all on the Greeks and their bloody referendum. Well maybe most, if not all.
EUR/USD down at 1.3690 from early 1.3815, having been as low as 1.3670 so far. The selling started right from the get go as European traders arrived at their desks. We had a few slight pauses on the way down, but nothing overly major as European stocks cratered. Just glad I don’t own any European bank shares.
BIS and other sovereigns have turned up buying below 1.3700 and that has at least slowed the sell-off.
Cable down at 1.5925 from early 1.6040. The pairing suffered a major hit on the release of really crappy October manufacturing PMI data (see above). We stood around 1.5995 on release and sold off quite sharply straight after. The fact that the UK Q3 GDP was marginally better than expected was brushed aside.
USD/JPY effectively unchanged at 78.15. What a difference a day makes. No news on the BOJ front. They seem to be keeping their powder dry.
AUD/USD down at 1.0300 from early 1.0440. Risk off innit.
One slightly surprising feature of the risk off morning is the fact that EUR/CHF is marginally firmer at 1.2180 from early 1.2140. Traders note very decent “sovereign” buying of USD/CHF. Wish I could tell you who those sovereigns were, but I can’t. Some mutterings of SNB activity, but we certainly haven’t got confirmation of such. USD/CHF up at .8890 from early .8785.