- Boehner’s budget ‘Plan B’ collapses - WSJ
- Aide to Japan’s next PM Abe: No need to revise BOJ law as long as central bank meets party’s expectations. Hopes BOJ agrees to 2% inflation target when new government compiles economic stimulus measures in mid-January
- Eurogroup’s Juncker: End of euro crisis not yet in sight but peak has been crossed
- Buba’s Weidmann: Doesn’t see inflation risks in next two years
- France’s Hollande: Unemployment will continue to rise in France
- EU’s Rehn: Further French deficit cuts ‘aren’t essential’ - Le Monde
- German Gfk consumer confidence survey for January 5.6, down from revised 5.8 in December and weaker than median forecast of 5.9
- French manufacturing industry morale rises to 89 in December from 88 in November, in line with Reuter’s median forecast
- Dutch final Q3 GDP -0.9% q/q, -1.5% y/y, slight improvement from prelim -1.1%, -1.6% respectively
- UK final Q3 GDP revised to +0.9% q/q from previous +1.0%
- UK November PSNB 15.328 bln, worse than Reuter’s median forecast of 14.2 bln
- Italian December consumer confidence rises to 85.7 from revised 84.9 in November, better than Reuter’s median forecast of 85.1
- Japan faces prospect of third decade of low growth - The Guardian
- Doubts remain over Spain’s austerity miracle - AEP at The Telegraph
Well I arrived at my desk fearing a Black Friday and in the end what we got was a damp squib.
EUR/USD sits at 1.3210, up a mere 10 pips from what greeted me. We saw a few dips below 1.3200 but important technical support at 1.3180 remains intact. Unsurprisingly, talk of sell stops through 1.3180, 1.3170 and more through 1.3150.
USD/JPY up very marginally at 84.10 from early 83.95. Talk that Japanese importers still have some buying to be done before year end. With this in mind talk of buy orders clustered down at 83.50/70. On the flip side, talk sell stops gathering down at 83.30/40.
Cable effectively unchanged at 1.6245.
