- Rehn: EU finance ministers welcome Irish aid request for EUR 80-90bn, article from the New York Times
- Britain set to contribute GBP7 billion in aid to Ireland
- China moves to increase reserve-ratio requirements, by 50bps, second increase in two weeks
- Irish Prime Minister Says Four-Year Plan Will Provide for Reduction Deficit of EUR15 bn by 2014
- Fed to cut growth forecast, from the FT
- Japan’s Justice Minister Resigns; and Noda reaffirms intention to ‘decisive currency action’ if needed
- US banks face $100bn Basel III shortfall, warns Barclays Capital, via FT
- Michael Dell Shows Ben Bernanke Is Impotent, William Pesek from Bloomberg
- S&P downgrades NZD, the unexpected report caught dealers by surprise and the NZD/USD falls almost a cent
The weekend’s news of a bailout for Ireland has been taken positively and given a risk-on momentum to the session. The EUR has benefited across the board and the other main beneficiary of the day has been the AUD.
As the session closes the general trend is continuing and we can expect Europe to sally forth and continue.
The loser of the day was the NZD, which fell dramatically upon the unexpected news from S&P who have downgraded the currency’s rating from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ citing weakness in the resilience to foreign debt issues; the NZ Financial Minister has said that they will do all possible to strengthen this. The NZD/USD traded down to 0.7720 from 0.7835
Ranges: EUR/USD 1.3675/1.3767 EUR/JPY 114.46/84 both now trading near the highs; USD/JPY 83.35/56 trading with the crosses; AUD 0.9865/0.9944 AUD/JPY 82.33/83.01 AUD/NZD 1.2660/1.2852, all trading towards the the highs; CABLE 1.5970/1.6019, now 1.6019
GOLD USD 1361.75 and OIL USD 82.59 ( US LIGHT – JAN)
Asian equities traded quietly firm led by the Nikkei up 1.03%
