- No clear signals Bernanke ready to ease more
- Bernanke: Fed has looked at range of tools, haven’t come to a choice
- Bank of Canada holds at 1.00%, keeps hawkish bias
- US June CPI +1.7% y/y vs +1.6% y/y exp
- NAHB housing index 35 vs 30 exp
- Finland strikes collateral deal with Spain
- Greece seeks bridge loan to pay bond redemption
- Bank of Italy sees 2% GDP contraction in 2012
- Monti worried about Sicilian default
- Canada manufacturing sales -0.4% vs +0.6% expected
- Fed’s Pianalto: Additional action warranted if weak data persists
- S&P 500 gains 0.7% to 1363
- AUD leads, JPY lags
The market kicked and screamed when Bernanke didn’t arrive for Humphrey Hawkins with a blank cheque. The US dollar rallied and the euro took the brunt, falling below 1.2200. A sober second assessment revealed that Bernanke remains prepared to roll out QE3, it just might take a few more bad data points. EUR/USD has been rallying since, up to 1.2294.
USD/JPY was locked around 79.00. The range was 78.93 to 79.13.
Large whipsaws in most pairs and gold on strong USD buying after Bernanke with 50-100 pip reversals all around.