- Greek opposition spokesperson: Opposition “agreed” to a unity government before last week’s cabinet reshuffle, but PM Papandreou withdrew any offers- Bloomberg TV
- Greek Govt spokesman: Troika to discuss technical issues, corrective changes in mid-term plan
- IMF/EU inspectors to visit Greece this week, meet Finance Ministry officials – Greek govt sources
- Schaeuble: Participation of private creditors has to be voluntarily otherwise this would lead to a credit event
- Schaeuble: Need to discuss with private creditors what substantial involvement in Greek bailout will mean
- Boris Johnson: Let Greece go bankrupt and leave the euro
- UK interest rates ‘will not rise until 2013′ – BNP Paribas
- German May PPI flat m/m, +6.1% y/y
- UK household finances suffer steepest decline since recession as more borrow to pay bills
- ECB’s Bini Smaghi: No Greek loans if spending cuts rejected
- U.S. companies push for tax break on foreign cash
- Greek 5 year credit default swaps rise to 2,025 bps, up 128 bps on the day
- Finland’s FinMin monthly report: Sees risk banks, including ECB, will need to write down securities
due to crisis in some countries - Eurozone: Q1 2011 Labour costs +2.6% y/y (exp +1.9%), Q4 2010 +1.5%, Q3 2010 +1.0%
- Bundesbank says sees German 2011 unadj GDP growth 3.1%
EUR/USD illogical and nervous. Stops tripped through 1.4250 ahead of Europe’s open. Buy orders clustered around 1.4220 were quickly filled as Europe got underway, and light stops tripped through 1.4200 on way to session low of 1.4191. BIS and Asian sovereign buying was noted below 1.4200 and we quickly rebounded north of said level.
Buying from real money accounts in the 1.4220’s, helped extend the recovery, before prop traders short from earlier highs covered shorts to 1.4252 on a nervous reaction to a Bloomberg TV interview (see headline above) The move lacked conviction running out of steam and quickly dipped back to 1.4220.
GBP/USD largely dogged the euro in a 1.6110-74 range, with EUR/GBP confined to 0.8798-0.8828.
USD/JPY unchanged at 80.25, recovering from dip to session low 80.00.
AUD/USD had a miserable session after losses in Asia were extended through large option related bids at 1.0505 to session low 1.0492. Subsequent sovereign sales of the EUR/AUD cross have however provided some tenuous support and we’re back up at 1.0515.
WTI Crude recovered after an early slap down to $91.50 picking up to $92.30 and largely tracking the S&P futures. Gold dithered in a $1536-39 range all morning., as did silver between $ 35.37-74 .