- ECB’s Asmussen: Sovereign debt crisis ongoing
- More Asmussen (can never have too much Asmussen is what I say)
- Spain banks borrowed 316.3 bln euros from ECB in March vs 169.8 bln in February -Bank of Spain
- Spain Dep EconMin: Reasonable for Spanish banks to take advantage of ECB funds
- Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao: Economy facing downward pressure, rising inflation risks
- German final March CPI +0.3% m/m, +2.1% y/y, in line with previous estimate and as expected
- Italy February industry output -0.7% m/m, wda -6.8% y/y, weaker than Reuter’s median forecasts -0.2%, -5.0% respectively
- UK March output prices +0.6% m/m, +3.6% y/y, fractionally firmer than median forecasts +0.5%, +3.5% respectively
- Japan EconMin Furukawa: Government, BOJ will continue to work closely to beat deflation
- You can’t spell Spain without ‘pain’
Spains IBEX and Italy’s FTSE MIB have had a torrid morning, off -2.4% and -1.8% respectively at writing.
EUR/USD down fractionally at 1.3158 from 1.3170 first thing. We’ve been up to 1.3184 and then down to 1.3143. Middle Eastern names bought early before running into the good old BIS selling circa 1.3180.
Then as the euro zone periphery stockmarkets came under accelerated pressure and periphery bond yields tightened, so EUR/USD came lower. Stops were tripped through both 1.3160 and 1.3150, but it has to be said real momentum has been sadly lacking once more.
USD/JPY effectively unchanged at 80.95.
Cable marginally easier at 1.5930 from early 1.5945. You know it’s been dull forex fare when cable only has a net 15 pip change on the day.