- German govt official: Expects major progress and perhaps breakthrough on banking union from finance ministers
- Finnish FinMin: Likely Greece can get next loan tranche on Thursday. Hopeful EcoFin can decide on bank supervision
- IMF mission chief for Portugal says country’s bailout programme near-term outlook remains uncertain
- BOE’s Dale: Stickiness in inflation may persist
- Italian auction result
- UK November jobless claims -3k, better than Reuters’ median forecast of +7K
- Euro zone October industrial production -1.4% m/m, -3.6% y/y, weaker than Reuters’ median forecasts +0.2%, -2.3% respectively
- Swiss December ZEW investor sentiment -15.5, up from -27.9 in November
- German November final CPI -0.1% m/m, +1.9% y/y, as expected
- Goldman Sachs economist: Says Australia central bank may cut rates to 2% in 2013
Mild risk appetite evident in the market ahead of Fed later today.
Hopes of a breakthrough in EU banking union (see above) will have aided sentiment. Stocks, oil, gold, US treasury yields all up marginally.
Yen weak across the board as we head into the weekend election. USD/JPY up at 82.85 from early 82.65 having been as high as 82.94. Hedge fund buying notable this morning. Next hurdle for yen bears is 83.00 where large barrier option interest is in place. Decent stops above apparently.
Talk had Japanese exporter interest lined up just ahead of 83.00 and reports had 2 yards (2 billion dollars) on the offer between 82.95 and 83.00.
EUR/JPY up at 107.93 from early 107.45 having been as high as 107.98. Talk of 108.00 barrier option interest.
EUR/USD up at 1.3028 from early 1.3000 having been as high as 1.3031. It just so happens 1.3031 is the 61.8% fibbo retracement of the 1.3127-1.2876 sell-off. Interesting innit, or maybe not. Whatever floats ya boat…….
