WISE MONEY

The recent rally in the euro was very surprising given the lack of any positive or even specific euro related news over the past couple of days. Market sentiment about the single currency remains low (after a temporary blip last week) because a Greek default is looming ever larger and European policy makers are still arguing over the rules that they hope will make the eurozone less weak moving forward.

In fact short positions (betting that the euro will fall in value) hit record highs over the past couple of weeks, which suggests there recent rally is more about shorts covering their positions, leading to the price of the euro rising forcing other shorts to cover, commonly known as a short squeeze.

If, as is likely, this explains the recent uptick in the euro and so we can expect more euro selling to resume once the squeeze runs out of steam.

Data for the eurozone for the rest of the week is extremely light, with the ECB monthly report showing how much the ECB is lending to stricken banks is due Thursday along with French and Spanish bond auctions.

Both auctions will be closely watched in light of the S&P downgrades on Friday.

Sterling has been fairly steady in the early part of the week.

UK Retail sales are the only release of note for the rest of the week but worth noting because they report over key Christmas period for the retailers and will probably give a good idea to the market if the UK economy is heading for (or is already in) another recession.

The US bank holiday on Monday has meant the US Dollar has also been fairly quiet so far this week, but Thursday and Friday sees a large amount of US data including the CPI figure, which should hopefully give the market an end of week shot of much needed direction in an otherwise rudderless few days.

After markets closed last night, Standard and Poor’s (S&P)  the credit rating agency dealt a severe blow to the European bailout fund by downgrading its AAA status to AA+. The agency blamed the large number of guarantors that had lost their triple A crown and therefore the funds itself could not maintain the gold standard rating.

Following the announcement, EU officials attempted to reassure markets that the funds will not change is ambitions to lend billions of Euros to struggling Eurozone states.

Proving how out of touch euro technocrats are the EFSF chief Klaus Regling claimed “The downgrade to AA+ by only one credit agency will not reduce EFSF’s lending capacity of €440 billion”.

This latest downgrade will increase pressure on Eurozone officials and German government to boost their contribution to the European Stability Mechanism which only becomes active in July.

Interestingly the euro has rallied so far following the announcement and currently sits at 1.2021 against Sterling and up against the Greenback at 1.2790.

This morning in the UK we had the latest CPI reading which indicated a 4.2% year on year according to the Office for National Statistics.

This is further fall following last months 4.8% figure and eases inflationary pressure on the Bank of England as it creeps lower towards the 2% target level.

This is the biggest year on year decline since April 2009, which was attributed to discounts on petrol gas and clothing according to the ONS.

The US re-opens today following its Bank Holiday for Martin Luther King day yesterday.

They start their week with Empire manufacturing data which assesses business conditions and expectations of manufacturing executives specifically in New York.

This is followed by a Canadian Interest rate decision where we are expecting them to maintain interest rates at 1.0%.

Europe will remain under the spot light over the next couple of days with the European Central Bank (ECB) meeting today, alongside debt auctions in Spain and Italy. The speculative market is predominantly short EUR while policy makers, specifically German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy are making the right noises; it appears the penny has dropped for Eurozone officials that it is not only about austerity but also about growth and reform.

Reports that Fitch ratings are unlikely to downgrade France’s ratings this year has provided a welcome boost to Eurozone confidence.

However Greece could yet spoil the party given the continuing dialogue with the Troika to decide the second bailout package for the country.

Political resistance within Greece suggests that more austerity may not be easy to execute.

For the time being there are ongoing questions about the degree of write-downs that Greek debt will endure.

In spite of these issues it looks like investors are becoming more immune to events in the Eurozone. While we still have high bond yields for Italy and other euro sovereigns it seems that risk appetite has improved.

One feature that is providing support to sentiment is the positive news out of the US.

Even though the Q4 earnings season has not started particularly well, data releases look rather more positive.

Last week’s US December jobs report continued to filter through positives to the market and we have also seen a pick up in small business confidence and a rise in consumer credit.

These recent improvements in economic data snaps highlight the gradual recovery process underway in the US and the growing divergence with the eurozone economy.

This supports the view of the US Dollar out performing the euro in the short to medium term.

The volatility that ended 2011 has yet to return the markets with Sterling, Euro and the US Dollar all remaining relatively stable against each other. This may start to change with tomorrow’s central bank interest rates announcements.

Both the Bank of England and European Central Bank are expected to keep rates unchanged at 0.5% and 1% respectively, but the press conference with the newly appointed chief of the ECB, Mario Draghi will be closely monitored.

Any comments about the economic conditions and the ongoing debt crisis in the Eurozone will have a large impact on where the markets move next so no pressure Mr Draghi!

More pressure was piled on the sovereign debt predicament a number of European countries continue to be on many of the credit agencies “negative watch”.

Fitch announced that it is likely to slash Italy’s credit rating at the end of January, which will make it even harder and more costly for the struggling nation to borrow funds.

Spain, Belgium, Ireland, Slovenia and Cyprus are also on the list as the credit agencies remain eagle eyed on how conditions change.

With much of the focus on the Europe and its single currency, expect the US Dollar and commodity currencies like the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand Dollars to remain strong as investors look for safer havens to keep their money during these worrying times.

Further euro weakness could also be on the cards if negative comments are realised on Thursday.

Friday afternoon saw the US economy post 200,000 new jobs in December, making that the sixth consecutive positive month according to official figures. This came much higher than the anticipated 150,000 jobs and reduces the overall unemployment rate down from 8.7% to 8.5%.

The main areas of job growth were seen in retail, manufacturing, transportation and warehousing and healthcare.

The news did not help the euro’s cause as it continued its decline against the Greenback falling below under 1.27 for the first time since autumn 2010.

US markets also struggled with the Dow Jones and S&P 500 indexes both closed lower as they remain concerned over the eurozone debt crisis.

The report did however provide some political collateral for the Obama Administration during an election year and said the US economy was “moving in the right direction”.

Over to Europe and Mario Monti the Italian PM has asked for all his European counterparts for their full support in implementing austerity measures to stabilise the Euro. “Europe needs to put into action common and coordinated growth policies on financial stability”. His comments came ahead of the Franco-German summit today in which Sarkozy and Merkel will attempt to strike out a unified position in the eurozone.

One will look to this summit to provide impetus on Euro trading in the early part of this week.

Sterling currently down slightly on last week at 1.2084 and the euro against the Dollar is trading at 1.2771.

A busy end to the week in the US, with all eyes on important December US Retail Sales number.

Will we see a continuing uptrend on this latest US number… early signs that it’s a similar story to UK in the retailers posting slightly disappointing numbers.

A fresh wave of negative sentiment swept the wise money markets caused by doubts over euro banks’ capital raising plans and Hungary’s solvency.

This led to investors selling shares in the continent’s major lenders. Italy’s biggest bank, UniCredit saw its share price fall by over 17% after it announced a heavily discounted rights issue, which valued stock at less than a third of it current price.

Over in Hungary, the yield on 10 year bonds soared to over 10% after the government failed to find enough buyers for the 45bn forints (£116 million) of sovereign bonds it was trying to sell. This combination of weakness in the Eurozone led to the single currency dropping to 15 month lows against Sterling.

This weakness in Europe was countered by positive data from both the UK and US.

The UK’s biggest sector, services ended last year on a high while America’s efforts to improve their jobs market showed signs of progress.

The US private sector added 325,000 new jobs in December and the non-farm payrolls are due out today with a rise of 150,000 jobs expected.

Overall, it has been a simple week for the markets with the euro continuing to be weak while the US Dollar remains the strongest of all as investors put their money into the global reserve currency.

The euro has opened lower this morning, sitting below the critical 1.30 barrier as markets remain nervous as to the steps that the eurozone will take to curb the crisis. In major trading, the US Dollar managed to gain further strength last week trading to a low of 1.2860 at the end of 2011, which was the lowest in the final quarter of 2011.

Data from the region, saw manufacturing figures come in from France, Germany and Switzerland, which was higher than previous months for all countries, though not reflecting a drastic expansion as it lay below the median figure of 50.

With regional banks stepping up their deposits in the ECB, panic had started to set in, but the announcement from the ECB last week that these deposits were receding, have calmed fears momentarily.

We have had some positive data from Germany, as far as unemployment figures go, pushing the euro towards the critical support level of 1.30 against the greenback.

As we go into the week, we expect further data from Europe on Services PMI and construction figures, which will lend to trading patterns of the Euro, intermittently.

We are straight back into a busy week for the US Dollar with ISM manufacturing out this afternoon along with the minutes of the previous Federal Reserve meeting from the 13^th December.

On Friday the US non-farm payroll number is also released, with the consensus for around 150K jobs being added over the previous month.

Today also marks the official start of the presidential elections with the voting beginning in the first republican primary in Iowa. A victory by the favourite, Mitt Romney may mean the race is over before it began with Mr Romney holding a 20 point lead in the next state to vote, New Hampshire.

The US dollar has gained against the majority of its peers after confirmation came from North Korean state television that leader Kim Jong II had died of a heart attack. The US Dollar gained due to its attraction as a safe haven currency as fear is now growing that instability may arise in the region. The Yen fell against the USD as concern rose for Japan’s economy and security as destabilization of the Korean peninsula will now be a concern.

The Euro has seen no real improvement and is still floundering against the USD. This week the concern for the Euro remains that some of the regions largest economies may have their credit ratings slashed. So we have fear mode prevailing in the markets with the USD akin to gold as it soaks up demand from investors with a lack of appetite as we close the year.

The huge demand for the US Dollar as a safe haven does to a large extent dumb down the fact that the US was stripped of its AAA credit rating by S&P four months ago- maybe Europe need not worry about downgrades!

Mario Draghi the ECB president has certainly not helped ease concerns for Europe as he breached the taboo subject of discussing a Euro break up. His point in discussing was that countries who exit the euro will suffer more than if they remained.

He also sought to play down the ECB’s role in suring up the debt crisis; the financial markets are looking for a more prominent role by the ECB to effectively end the crisis and Draghi has sidestepped this potential solution consistently.

For this week, we will see final readings on third quarter growth for the US, UK and France with no changes expected. On Wednesday we have the Bank Of England minutes and the markets will be looking for more clues on further QE for the UK.

However in reality economic numbers will be of little importance this week as investors shelve risk and await the new year payroll number from the US on Jan 6.

The eurozone debt crisis appears to be spreading quickly, threatening to turn a regional crisis into a global crisis. Fitch rating agency stated further contagion would pose a risk to US banks.

As a result risk assets continue to be sold but interestingly oil prices are climbing.

Coupled with comments from the Bank of England that failure to find a resolution will lead to “significant adverse effects” on the global economy, it highlights the risks of both economic and financial contagion.

For some European countries this is becoming a crisis of confidence and a breakdown in political talks is resulting in an ever worsening spiral of negativity.

While Monti was sworn in as Italian Prime Minister and Papademos won a confidence motion in the Greek parliament the hard work begins now for both leaders in convincing markets of their reform credentials.

Given that there is no agreement from eurozone officials forthcoming, sentiment is set to worsen further, with safe haven assets the main beneficiaries.

EUR/USD fell sharply in yesterday’s session hitting a low around 1.3429.

Attempts to rally were sold into, with sellers noted just below 1.3560.

Even an intensification of bond purchases by the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to prevent eurozone bond yields moving higher and the EUR from falling.

Against this background and in the absence of key data releases EUR will find direction from the Spanish 10 year bond auction while a French BTAN auction will also be watched carefully given the recent increase in pressure on French bonds.

Having broken below 1.3500, EUR/USD will aim for a test of the 10 October low around 1.3346 where some technical support can be expected.

Last week’s money market moving events meant several twists from risk on/risk off however there is no clear path for the markets.The main market movers were both central bank meetings in Europe and the US, in addition, US jobs data supplied ample volatility points for investors.

It’s a quiet week ahead for headline US data, with trade and Michigan confidence, the main events.

Consequently, the greenback will take direction from developments in Europe and we could see the Dollar strengthen as eurozone tensions continue.

On the subject of Europe, the single European currency remained relatively firm in spite of a Greek referendum suggestion.

If this had gone ahead it could signal the beginning of the end for Greece’s eurozone membership.

We did see small losses on the euro over the week and we may see something similar this week as investors dig through news regarding Greece and the EU rescue plan.

While the Greek PM survived a confidence vote the euro will remain susceptible due to a lack of detail about the rescue plan in as well as the actual mechanics for leveraging the bailout fund.

In terms of headline data this week we have German industrial production which is expected to show a slowdown in activity and could prove unhelpful for any kind of euro rally.