- Bank of England leaves rates, QE unchanged, as widely expected
- SNB’s Buehrer: Permanent franc peg is “not an issue”
- Spanish auction
- Italian auction
- BOJ chief economist: Japan economy to see flat growth for time being before resuming moderate recovery
- Bill Gross: Expects $500 bln in US QE in 2h 2012 – Bloomberg TV
- French December CPI +0.4% m/m, +2.5% y/y, stronger than median forecasts +0.2%, +2.3% respectively
- German December final CPI +0.7% m/m, +2.1% y/y, in line with preliminary numbers and as expected
- Italian November industrial production +0.3% m/m, better than Reuters’ median forecast of -0.3%
- UK industrial production -0.6% m/m, -3.1% y/y, much weaker than Reuters’ median forecast of unchanged, -2.2% respectively
- Moody’s downgrades region of Valencia to Ba3; ratings of all Spanish sub-regions placed on review for downgrade
- Japan FinMin Azumi: Building up Japan’s debt pile would affect long-term interest rates
Both the Spanish and Italian auctions went well this morning, lending the single currency some much needed support. We’re up at 1.2760 from early 1.2715 having been as high as 1.2768.
BIS bought into early dip around 1.2700 and then promptly sold up around 1.2720. Looked as though they might have traded the days range such was the comatose state of the market.
Middle Eastern names then entered the market buying, helping underpin the pairing before first the Spanish auction results and then the Italian saw upside momentum accelerate. Nothing too major though when all said and done.
If we get back to 1.2800 we’ll have to have another poll
Cable up at 1.5355 from early 1.5325. It hasn’t been plain sailing by any means though. We initially saw sterling under pressure with cable sell off through 1.5300 to session low 1.5277.
Important technical support was highlighted at 1.5270 (17 month low) and decent buying duly emerged just ahead of said level. Real money names were notable buyers below 1.5300.
The market shrugged off crappy UK industrial production data and the fact the Old Lady left QE unchanged gave some further underpinning into lunch.
USD/JPY unchanged at 76.88, ain’t it always. Buy orders, including Kampo, clustered down at 76.50/60, sell stops through 76.45.
Sell orders seen clustered up at 77.00/10. Buy stops said to be gathering through 77.35.
