After trading on a soft note for much of ther US session, equtites are bouncing back, trading down less than half a percent inearly afternoon trade. EUR/USD is rebounding within the choppy 1.3515/1.3585 range it has been in place in the wake of the early morning dive to 1.3480.

Just crossing the wires now are bearish comments from EU economics commissioner Almunia. He says that European Commissions economic outlook is much more pessimistic than it was in January. He is happy, he says, with the way Ireland is dealing with its rapidly ballooning budget deficit.