European Officials Has Undermined

Dukascopy Technical Analysis EUR/USD "The euro has been on a firm footing. Should European finance ministers agree to beef up the rescue fund, the euro may get a bit firmer." - Mizuho Securities Co. (based on Bloomberg) The pair remains pretty resilient after the S&P announcement Greece might require another bailout package to restructure its debt and is capable of approaching the recent high at 1.3449. EUR/JPY "European Union discussions on the scale of the ESM (European Stability Mechanism), the Spanish government's 2012 budget plan and the China PMI figure... ahead of this, as well as all the U.S. data, the market is cautious." - SMBC Friend Securities (based on CNBC) As anticipated, EUR/JPY slipped lower yesterday ahead of the 111.57 level (intervention high). GBP/USD "With the UK ...

Asian shares firmed on Friday, with the region's benchmark indices marking their best first quarter in over 20 years, as investors awaited a meeting on a possible euro zone firewall and Chinese data that may dictate market trends in coming months. Bargain hunters are likely to lift European equity markets, with financial spreadbetters predicting major European markets .FTSE .FCHI .GDAXI to open up 0.6 to 0.9 percent. U.S. stock futures inched up 0.2 percent. .EU .L .N MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS eked out a 0.3 percent gain, in positive territory after a two-day decline, but still off a one-week high hit earlier this week. The index is set for a quarterly gain of nearly 12 percent, the best showing since the third quarter of 2010 and best ...

5 Key Themes For Next Week - Risk, Chinese Equities, Copper, Periphery Yields, German and US Data This week was mainly characterized by a shift in sentiment as we went from generally mild risk positive tone to one in which investors showed renewed worries around global growth expectations with data from China and Europe disappointing. The result was a flight from higher yielding commodity linked currencies like the AUD and NZD - which are closely linked to demand from China - and then the CAD as it posted a much weaker retail sales report which undermined the fundamental picture for that economy. The key benefactor was the JPY which manged to pare some of the gains seen by commodity currencies during March. But the USD, EUR, and GBP all strengthened against the commodity currencies as ...

Economic Data Analysis Cyclical Improvement Continues Outside Euro Area Muted reaction to Greek deal, but coming week's LTRO should be more positively received. Global PMIs to maintain improving trend, but Bernanke's testimony to down play gains. UK cyclical vs structural debate highlighted with soft lending figures, while PMI improves After weeks of anticipation, Euro area officials agreed a second Greek bail-out package. This should pave the way for the Greek PSI offer being made later today. Markets have hardly greeted the news with euphoria, concentrating on the clauses and hurdles stil l to be cleared, specifically the take up in the PSI debt swap and rising social tensions evident in Greece. Nevertheless, progress to date makes it less likely that we will see a ...

European shares fell and the euro eased to a 3-week low on Thursday as a delay in deciding on a crucial bailout for Greece unnerved investors and halted the rally for riskier assets like equities that has marked the start of 2012. U.S. stock index futures also pointed to a lower open with the warning by ratings agency Moody's of a possible downgrade of several major Wall St banks adding to the worries over Greece. Moody's said it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign the impact of the euro zone debt crisis was spreading. Among the banks listed were Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N). But it was fear that time is running out for Greece to avoid a potentially chaotic default that ...

(Reuters) - European shares fell and the euro eased to a 3-week low on Thursday as a delay in deciding on a crucial bailout for Greece unnerved investors and halted the rally for riskier assets like equities that has marked the start of 2012. U.S. stock index futures also pointed to the Greek worries leading to a lower open on Wall Street. .N Greece is now facing a very tight timetable to avoid a potentially chaotic default, having said it must initiate a debt swap with its private bondholders by Friday to meet a March 20 deadline when it is due to repay 14.5 billion euros in debt. Even if a deal is agreed on Monday, several sources have told Reuters euro zone finance officials are examining ways of delaying part or possibly all of the second bailout program, while still avoiding a ...

(Reuters) - The euro hit a fresh two-month high on Thursday on views that Greece was inching closer to a bailout deal even though Greek parties stopped short of signing off on austerity measures. Greek political leaders have agreed on all points of a bailout package except one -- pension cuts -- and officials said discussions with international lenders would continue so a deal could be concluded before a meeting of euro zone finance ministers on Thursday. Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, however, said before dawn on Thursday as he left Athens for Brussels that he hoped the Eurogroup meeting would be held, leaving traders wondering what to expect. The euro rose as high as $1.3308 from $1.3260 in late New York trading, having recovered from losses triggered after disappointment ...

(Reuters) - Asian shares fell and the euro hit a fresh 16-month low against the dollar on Friday on worries that the euro zone debt crisis is crippling European banks, with players hoping U.S. jobs data later in the day will improve sentiment. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS fell 1.2 percent and was set to end the first week of 2012 only marginally higher, after shedding 18 percent last year. Financials generally weakened as European woes hurt confidence, even though Asian banks are nowhere near as exposed to toxic euro zone assets as European banks. Japan's Nikkei .N225 also slipped 1.2 percent. .T European markets are expected to open little changed, with financial spreadbetters expecting London's FTSE .FTSE, Frankfurt's DAX .GDAXI and Paris' ...

Winding Down Or A Ratings Wind-Up? Markets normally would be looking for an orderly winding down process to the Christmas and New Year period amid hopes for a tentative improvement in risk appetite on year-end position adjustment. Any sense of relaxation this year is likely to be undermined by constant uncertainty surrounding the threat of further credit-ratings downgrades amid unease surrounding the Euro-zone outlook. Fitch warned over the French rating on Friday as it was placed on negative watch along with 6 other Euro-zone members. Markets will remain on high alert over the risk of a downgrade of French ratings by Standard & Poor’s which would trigger at least a temporary Euro spike lower and would also risk another escalation in fear early in 2012. A key problem of course is that ...