- Greece, IIF forge initial accord on swap terms – Proto Thema says
- Merkel to meet IMF’s Lagarde Sunday, then meet with EUs Barroso and Van Rompuy on Monday
- Germany’s Schaeuble tells magazine Italy must reduce debt, a move it has been avoiding since the 1990’s – ouch!!
- Senior Merkel coalition MP: Germany should not bring forward ESM payments without all countries participating
- Sarkozy warns Greece not to delay decisions – Reuters
- BOE’s Broadbent: Never pre-commited to more QE in February – MNI
- Ex BOJ Iwata: Current yen rises far removed from economic fundamentals. Should set up 50 trln yen fund to buy foreign assets
- German December PPI -0.4% m/m, +4.0% y/y, weaker than median forecasts +0.1%, +4.6% respectively
- UK December retail sales +0.6% m/m, +2.6% y/y, pretty close to median forecasts of +0.7%, +2.5% respectively
- Greek November current account deficit shrinks 7.3% y/y to -2.303 bln
- Buba’s Dombret: Clarity from govts needed on financial transaction tax
- Portugal to need “debt haircut” as economy tips into Grecian downward spiral – AEP at The Telegraph
EUR/USD down at 1.2910 from early 1.2960. Inbetween we’ve been up to 1.2986 and then all the way down to 1.2888 before steadying.
Intial rally fizzled out amid talk of ACB and option-related sell orders just ahead of the psychological 1.3000 level. We drifted back lower, before the move accelerated as trailing sell stops through 1.2950 were tripped.
We were in the process of steadying, when comments from Germany’s Finmin (see above) sent us fleetingly below 1.2900.
Talk of buy orders clustered down at 1.2875/85 ahead of 21 DMA helped lend some support and we rallied back above 1.2900. Late morning trade has slowed and we’ve been confined to relatively narrow range just North of 1.2900.