- FT: Germany open to expanding bailout funds in exchange for tighter budget rules
- Europe imposes sanctions on Iranian oil, crude up $1.57
- Eurozone consumer confidence -20.6 from 21.3
- Greece says Feb 13 is PSI agreement deadline
- Lagarde wants to boost European bailout
- Dutch fin min not opposed to involuntary Greek haircut
- BOE’s Posen: MPC right to consider more QE
- German and French banks want to delay capital rules
- RTRS poll shows 12 of 17 primary dealers expecting QE3, most in H1
- DJ: Eurozone and IMF will not increase Greek bailout
- ECB bought €2.2B bonds last week, down from €3.8B the week before
- Italian 10yr yields down for 7th day, -14 bps to 6.11%
- S&P 500 flat at 1316
- EUR and CAD top performers, USD and JPY lag
The short squeeze in EUR was basically a Europe-only event. The high of 1.3053 came just as Europe closed. EUR/USD started to slip after the close and the losses accelerated after Dow Jones reported that the Greek bailout taps areclosed. There was talk about stops below 1.30 but they were never tested as we skidded around 1.3015 until the FT report, which inflated EUR/USD back to 1.3030.
Oil helped the Canadian dollar after Europe joined the US in imposing sanctions on Iran. Iranian leaders warned (again) about closing the Strait of Hormuz. Other commodities were also buoyant, helping AUD and NZD as well.