- Canadian March retail sales +2.1% vs upwardly revised +0.8% in February
- German Bundesrat Upper House approves bill on German participation in euro zone resue package
- Merkel: Very pleased German parliament passed euro zone rescue package bill. Important to keep euro stable
- ECB’s Trichet: I never comment on fx intervention. Euro is not in danger – paper
- Portugal parliament rejects no-confidence motion against government, main opposition party abstains
- Rumour: Goldman settles with SEC. Rumour unfounded
- IMF says Swiss National Bank monetary policy “appropriate” Swiss franc not misaligned, recent franc rise mostly reflects strengthening fundamentals
- US Treasury: TARP losses at $105.4 bln, down $11.4 bln from previous estimate
After a week like we’ve experienced many feared the worse, maybe a new Black Friday. It didn’t come to pass, the S&P finishing 1.5% ahead of the game after an admittedly choppy session. It went right to the wire, but the optimists won out.
Against this backdrop the yen gave ground, EUR/JPY finishing up around 113.00 from early 111.70. USD/JPY up at 89.93 from early 89.35. Buy orders had been noted down at 89.00/10 with Kampo said to be residing there, but we never got to find out.
EUR/USD up at 1.2565 from early 1.2505. Large US bank said to have bought aggressively in 1.2500/10 area in very early trade and that set the tone.
Cable had a good day finishing up at 1.4480 from early 1.4330, but psychological 1.4500 proved a step too far, for today at least.
Even the beleaguered commodity currencies fared better, AUD/USD up at .8300 from early .8255, while USD/CAD is down at 1.0600 from early 1.0740.