- Finland looking for compromise on Greek collateral
- German Chancellor Merkel’s CDU party loses regional elections
- Australian TD-MI inflation gauge unchanged in August
- Strong business inventories in Australia; job ads fall
- China services sector PMI falls to 50.6 from 53.4
- HK PMI falls sharply to 47.8 from 51.4
- RBA likely to stay on hold tomorrow
- Gold steady around $1880/oz
- Regional stockmarkets fall by 2% on average
EUR/USD opened lower in Asia after closing in NY near 1.4200. Merkel’s election losses and upcoming risk events like the German constitutional court, the ECB decision on buying more Italian bonds and the rolling over of Greek debt by international banks, all gave the EUR a bearish tone. A barrier at 1.4150 was broken on perhaps the third attempt but there has been no follow through. The US holiday later today has also convinced many players to stay away. Ranges: 1.4134/72
AUD/USD has fallen steadily through the session mainly on risk-aversion sentiment and the squaring up of recent longs ahead of the RBA. We saw a modest bounce off the lows after some strong business inventory data. Ranges: 1.0566/1.0620
USD/JPY has drifted slowly lower, mainly driven by selling in the JPY crosses. Range: 76.70/95
USD/CHF has been fairly quiet after the excessive volatility of Friday night, trading .7874/.7912,
Cable 1.6134/85; EUR/GBP .8743/72
