Official Word From The Ecb

This is the key question for currency traders right now. The fundamental back-drop looks challenging for the euro. Although the Merkel/ Hollande rift seems overdone to us, Greece is the real problem. The leader of the New Democracy party announced late last night that he had failed to form a coalition government. The baton is now passed to the leader of the radical left wing Syrizia party, which now has three days to form a government. If this fails then another round of elections is on the cards for June. However, these elections could coincide with Greece running out of money, which makes them a much riskier prospect than the elections held last weekend. Election deadlock However, why has the euro not fallen through the floor? Back in 2010 the mere mention of the word bailout caused ...

(Reuters) - Brent crude held steady above $120 on Thursday as a weaker dollar helped recoup losses made earlier in the day, while comments from the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank eased worries about growth in oil demand. The Fed said the economy expanded modestly in January through mid-February as hiring picked up a bit across several districts. Across the Atlantic, comments by a European Central Bank official on keeping a bond-buying program as an option to help Spain eased worries about the region's fiscal woes. Brent crude rose 31 cents to $120.49 a barrel by 4:23 a.m. EDT (0623 GMT), after touching a low of $119.93 earlier in the session. Oil rose 37 cents to $103.07, adding to $1.68 gains in the previous session. The dollar .DXY weakened 0.25 percent against a basket ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR The factory executive rose to 96 in March from 93 in February, after the French Ministry of Finance rose its 2012 economic growth forecast to 0.7% yesterday. Experts believe tha raise will significantly help the current president Sarcozy in his election battle. USD Nike has announced higher profits in the last quarter due to strong demand that offset increasing production costs. Profit of the sportswear producer in the last quarter that ended in February soared by 7% year-to-year, attaining 560 million US Dollars on the 15% increase in total revenues. The economic climate stays highly uncertain but we are optimistic about the company perspectives, said Mark Parker, the President of Nike. GBP The nationwide consumer sentiment index declined unexpectedly in ...

Fundamental News: Today’s highlights: ECB President Draghi Speaks (EUR, 15:00 GMT) Fed Chairman Bernanke Speaks (U.S, 17:45 GMT) Core Retail Sales (MoM) (CAD, 13:30 GMT) Initial Jobless Claims (U.S, 13:30 GMT) Retail Sales (MoM) (GB, 10:30 GMT) The United States is not considering additional contributions for an emergency European bailout fund, as Europe has the financial capacity to manage its sovereign debt crisis, according to Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner. Moreover, while progress has been made toward a lasting solution to Europe's fiscal problems, the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke still worries that U.S. banks and money market funds remain at risk of contagion. European holdings represented 35 percent of the assets of prime U.S. money market ...

2012 is proving to be the ‘Year of the Central Bank’. It is an exciting celebration of all the wonderful maneuvers central banks can employ to keep the system from falling apart. Western central banks have gone into complete overdrive since last November, convening, colluding and printing their way out of the mess that is the Eurozone. The scale and frequency of their maneuvering seems to increase with every passing week, and speaks to the desperate fragility that continues to define much of the financial system today. The first major maneuver took place on November 30, 2011, when the world’s G6 central banks (the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank , the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank of Canada) announced “coordinated actions to enhance ...

In today’s Daily Reckoning, we’ll do something we can barely stand to do: we’re going to write one more time about Greece. If you can stand to read it, you may come to the same conclusion we reached. That conclusion is simple: what’s going on Europe has nothing to do with solving a debt crisis and everything to do with preserving a corrupt system based on limitless debt and growing government power. The sooner you understand that fact, the sooner you’ll be able to prepare for what happens next. There are two options for what happens next, and we’ll get to those shortly. First, though, doesn’t it strike you as strange that all of Europe can be brought to its knees by tiny little Greece? Greek GDP is just 2.4% of Europe’s GDP. In economic terms, Greece doesn’t matter. Its lack of growth or ...

Forex News and Events: Today’s ECB 3yr LTRO was greater than the market expected and therefore we should expect to see an positive push in risk assets as the cash actually hits the market. This was the highest take up in LTRO history. Earlier there was a slight migration to risk off trades as S&P's decision to downgrade Greek debt to 'Selective Default' rating, caused the ECB to announce that it would temporarily suspend using Greek debt as collateral. Both events have been pretty much priced in, so the correction was short lived. There were also headlines that Germany's Constitutional Court Tuesday ruled it would be unconstitutional for a small sub-parliamentary committee to make decisions on the euro-zone bailout fund. In effect, the decision gave parliament a larger influence in the ...

Forex News and Events: By late Sunday evening, it was clear there had been little real progress from the G20 summit in Mexico. While expectations had been low, there was an outside chance that the G20 would make a significant announcement (like 2008 when the G20 secured $1 trillion to rescue the world economy). But the comments coming from Mexico had a similar theme that G20 nations wanted Europe to do more to solve its own problems before additional resources would be provided. British finance minister George Osborne's statement highlighted the sentiment “We are prepared to consider IMF resources but only once we see the color of the euro zone money and we have not seen the color of the euro zone money,” he told Sky TV. “I think that quid pro quo will be clearly established here.” ...

FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK at 0800 GMT (EDT +0400) USD The euro suffered overnight as fears over the situation in Greece have resurfaced. While the market is hoping for a clinching of a debt swap deal today with private sector creditors, securing cross-party support for further austerity measures and securing further funding from the troika is proving far more difficult. According to political leaders in Athens, the main parties have until noon today (local time) to respond to the troika’s demands, and so far there appears some distance between where the national unity government lies and the IMF’s targets. Talks continued late into the evening on Sunday and will resume today between the troika and the local authorities. Reports suggest that the main point of contention lies in private sector ...