The eurozone received a massive boost yesterday as China pledged to invest in the European bailout fund and also keep hold of it’s euro assets.
It comes just as Greek leaders are putting budget cuts in place, in return for their second bailout. They are hoping to get the 130bn euros plus the 100bn euros of debt relief in time to make a 14.5bn euros bond payment on March 20. However, the meeting today of eurozone finance ministers has been cancelled, and will instead take place via telephone conference, as there is speculation that Greece won’t be able to stick to the austerity measures they originally claimed they were to put in place.
Germany may swerve a recession as Europe’s biggest economy shrank less than economists forecast for the fourth quarter. Their GDP fell 0.2 percent from last quarter compared to an expected 0.3 percent, which has provided for some moderate optimism.
The UK 100 finished slightly off par yesterday at 5899.8, after climbing 0.9 per cent on Monday as investors pulled out of banks and miners and put their hard earned cash into more defensive sectors on the back of disappointing data from the US Retail Sales, spurring on concerns over the strength of the economic recovery.
On the macroeconomic front, the main focus this side of the Atlantic will be the British Unemployment numbers being released at 0930 GMT, closely followed by the Bank of England’s inflation report at 1030 GMT. Across the pond, data comes in the form of February’s Empire State Index at 1330 GMT, National Association of Homebuilders Index at 1500 GMT but most importantly the minutes from the last Federal Reserve FOMC meeting are being released after the UK close at 1900 GMT.
Ahead of news that today’s eurozone finance ministers’ meeting was to be cancelled, speculation amongst traders was that Greece’s proposed bailout package is in danger. The knock on effect was a third consecutive fall for the euro against the dollar. It seems that China have come to the rescue at the right time and given the euro a much needed boost and we are seeing the single currency trade higher this morning at 1.3160. With European equities up this morning there may be room for the euro to move higher.
Doubts that Greece will be able to uphold its side of the belt-tightening deal with other Euro zone members proved to give a good resistance for gold yesterday as investors in search of a safety haven found tranquillity yet again in the US dollar. On one side of the see-saw is fear that the situation with Greece could still be contagious, and thus create liquidity problems in the market place, but on the other side, if the European Nation gets another break, investors could see the yellow brick resume its upwards trend. Overall, gold lost 1.8 bucks to close at 1720.5, but at time of writing the bulls seem to be heavier with the precious metal up at 1727.5.
Europe’s biggest economy, Germany, posted a better than expected economic sentiment figure yesterday giving traders a boost of confidence and allowing them to ignore Moody’s Investor Services downgrade on a number of euro zone member’s credit ratings. This in turn provided good support for crude, which was also given a leg up as Israel accused Iran of attacks on its diplomats abroad.
